Step outside your comfort zone

I’ll never forget the last talent show I was in. We were at a family church camp. My son, who was eight, insisted that I play a couple of songs on the guitar. At first, I resisted. (You might have too if you’d only taken three lessons, knew two chords and had never sung in public before!)

Of course, I didn’t want to look and sound stupid in front of more than 300 campers. But I finally said yes, after I realized that it was an opportunity to teach him a valuable life lesson about taking risks.

When I got up on stage, my knees began to shake and my mouth became dry — classic symptoms of fear and panic. Before I started playing, I explained my beginner status to the group. I asked them to please sing along, too, and that if I couldn’t change chords fast enough, I would catch up to them. They thought I was kidding but soon found out that I wasn’t. I survived the ordeal, however, and even got a hearty round of applause.

As human beings — and sellers — we don’t step out of our comfort zones a lot. We live our life on cruise control. And then, when bumps come along, which they inevitably do, we really struggle.