“The important thing is to take that first step. Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next.”
— Dansku Ikeda
After living a childhood in which I was overprotected and taught to be cautious, I lived my early adult years as if I was stuck in cement. I was scared to death to attempt anything new. And, I mean ANYTHING!
For example, if the computer had a glitch I would call someone immediately to see what was wrong…because I was afraid that I would make it worse if I attempted to do anything with it.
Also, I would not prepare food from a recipe unless someone personally showed me first exactly how to prepare the dish so that I could make sure I was doing it ‘right.’
In college, I took every class that was available to me in business, journalism, marketing and communications because my major was Public Relations and I wanted to be sure I knew everything about what would be expected of me when I graduated. And, I took a year off from college for an unpaid internship in the field so that I was sure that I was fully prepared to be hired when I graduated.
The words ‘experiment,’ ‘explore,’ ‘play’ struck fear in my heart.
If I was expected to do something that I had never done before, I had to be given a detailed set of simple instructions of exactly what to do and the expected outcome or I would not be able get started because the fear of doing it wrong stopped me in my tracks.
My life was a boring, safe routine of the same activities which I did perfectly over and over again.
So, it was not much of a life.
And, then something remarkable changed my approach to new beginnings in an instant! I had the opportunity to hear motivational expert Zig Ziglar say…”Anything worth doing is worth doing…. poorly the first time!
My life changed forever in that moment!! Want to know how?
After hearing Zig speak, I realized that by being willing to take the risk to do anything poorly or imperfectly the first time, we all become more attractive in these 3 ways:
#3 – We have more fun and joy in life which attracts more opportunities to have more fun and more joy.
#2 – We expand our ability to be creative which attracts more opportunities to be creative.
#1 – We are free to express our true selves. Rather than being frozen in fear, we are authentically attractive to all that we desire to attract.
And, after receiving that fear-busting advice from Zig, I chose to have a theme for my life which became — ‘Do It Your Way Any Way You Can!’
And, little by little I gained courage by:
* playing and experimenting with projects where the outcome did not matter…such as making new recipes just for me rather than for a dinner party.
* reading FAQs for social media sites that might be experiencing a glitch rather than automatically asking my husband to figure out what was wrong with my computer.
* allowing a project to be ‘in development’ rather than waiting for it to be absolutely completed before implementing it so that I am always moving closer to the fulfillment of my goals.
I love that Brenda Wiener also had a breakthrough by ‘Doing It Your Way Any Way You Can!’ She shared with me…
“I have a tendency to want to do something perfectly the first time. I am learning that this tendency for perfection is sometimes a cover up to not move forward. “Oh I can’t start that because I can’t do it perfect.” Yeah right, if I am honest with myself the real issue is that I have a fear I am not ready to address. This weekend I took care of filing some paperwork that had been piling up in my office. As I was filing I realized that there was a lot of paperwork that could actually just be recycled and/or burned. IT DID NOT need to be kept. In fact I was able to empty an entire file drawer! By taking that first step, I now have an empty file drawer ready for the abundance to be received from a new business venture. And guess what – that first step was not nearly as time-consuming as I had believed it would be.”
And, that is how ‘Do It Your Way Any Way You Can’ makes you 3x more ‘attractive’!
I would love to hear how you use ‘Do It Your Way Any Way You Can.’ Thanks doing it your way by sharing your insights and ideas with me using the Comments section below.
Thanks for commenting below on how this
Success Tip made a difference for you. And, feel free to tag and share, too!
Stacey Hall,
Go For Yes Success Strategist
Speaker, Best-Selling Author
CEO, Chi-To-Be!, LLC
