Half the Battle is Showing Up!

Half the battle is showing up

(Follow Your Competence, not your Passion - Part 2)

You often don’t get opportunities you do not make an effort to look for. Many people don’t get selected for a job or contract or a sale because no one knows about them, they did not bother to come forward and be known.?

It is human to be self conscious and part of how we preserve our dignity and public image is to always retreat in a shell and judge ourselves too harshly.?

As a result, we disqualify ourselves in many instances where we would be qualified only if we had put ourselves up for scrutiny.?

Sometimes you should just throw your name in the hat

How many times have you decided not to apply for a job after you read the job description or the duties??

You did not know that probably the writer of the job specification wrote very difficult technical duties that even people within their own company were shocked that someone does such a job.?

I believe most times people overestimate the importance of their jobs, especially on job descriptions and CVs. So sometimes it is worth a go to just send your profile anyway.

Often a hiring manager, who may or may not participate in the initial screening of job candidates that have passed the software screen, has put in terminology in the job description that is unique to the company and not common anywhere else but it is a job you may be able to do.

This means that you can screen yourself out of an opportunity you are qualified for. Don’t do that!

Make that phone call, send that email or direct message.?

The worst you will get is a NO.

Part of life is taking the hard hits. The failures and rejections.?

Have you ever thought about a boxing match? 2 boxers in a ring and millions watching and criticizing. They are totally exposed and vulnerable. One is likely being hit by their opponent, the second is being ridiculed by the crowd. Most often if one loses, they get both.

If you look at it closely, the 2 boxers (I’ve never heard of tag-team boxing) have nothing to be ashamed of; they are both better than anyone in the crowd. They took the risk and will reap the reward, win or lose.

Risk is part of life

You have to grow old a bit, get out into the wild jungle called the real world to understand that things are not fair.Life is not fair. They didn’t tell us the whole truth in school and we were suckers for it. We assumed that all it takes was hard work, good grades and things would align.

No one really taught us risk.?

No one taught us what Nassim Taleb calls the asymmetries of life. Small actions that have a disproportionately big result. It is good practice to explore those unbalanced opportunities in our favour.

Unlike the normal distributions that classic education teaches, life is all about fat tailed distributions. Things are not always proportional, some small actions get big rewards.

I'm trying to get someone to understand that some seemingly small actions will make a big difference. If you make a hundred phone calls, you only need 1% of them to be positive to get an opportunity that may change your life.

I can almost hear the excuses starting to jump in your mind. Who has the time and money to make a hundred phone calls? What will the person think, this is embarrassing… and so starts the long line of excuses.

We give up too soon.

Why not act when the rewards far outweigh the actions you have to take.

If you are put in a desperate situation; usually it makes you throw caution out to the wind and you make the necessary decisions and calls.

I have a hunch that if you practice throwing out caution, even without desperation, you will start making more progress than usual in your life.

Half the battle is showing up.?

Opportunities are often out there, waiting for those who seek. Those are the ones who will find… This is straight from scripture but maybe someone will hear it another way.

If you don’t send that proposal, that bid or make that elevator pitch, you will never be in that arena.

Going back to our previously abandoned boxing metaphor, risk is challenging the champions of life. It is often in a public way and you are likely to get beat. You still could lose. You still could win. That is the upside to the risk, you still could win.

Many people know someone who might need their service or know they are very capable professionals; but they cannot take the step to offering the service at the risk of failure. It is a sad reality that is true for many, young and old.

Often regrets are about chances, no-matter how small, that were never taken up.

Here’s how I prepare for taking risks: I throw my hat over the fence.?

I remember reading a Dale Carnegie book years ago. The lesson I learnt is; if you come to a fence you cannot climb, throw your hat over the fence.?

Throwing your hat over the fence is giving yourself incentive to do something. It is ensuring you don’t look back and it is making sure you go and get what is yours.

The extreme example is burning the boats.

This is another story I have read about; Julius Caesar burning the boats that his army had invaded with so that the only way they could go back home was to conquer the army of the land they invaded. It is about forcing commitment.

If you don’t have boats to burn, just throw your hat over the fence. It can be an email or a LinkedIn in-mail. It may be booking a meeting or a ticket or buying a book or a tool. Throwing your hat over the fence can be a financial commitment that will make you follow through.

Take rejection as positive feedback.

Sometimes in communication, receiving a response of any sort is a positive. That is how you should wire yourself.

When I am applying for a job, I usually send a bunch of applications and emails. By bunch I mean hundreds. I know that in most cases I will get no reply and that is the worst outcome.?

I do, however,love it when I start getting ‘regret’ emails. It is feedback that my applications are getting through. Someone is looking at them.

If you persist despite rejections, one person will not reject you. That is the whole point. Sorry for being ‘Captain Obvious’ but someone needs to be reminded that all direct feedback in some cases is positive.

Accountability is key

Sometimes you need someone who will give you a nudge. The friend who will say, ‘you got this’, ‘come on, chicken!’. Maybe not the chicken part but you may need to be accountable to someone who is not out to talk you out of your plan but to build you.

You better not tell the negative people. You certainly should not tell most people. Not on social media. The crowd cannot be your source of accountability, they will destroy you.

What you need is someone with the heart and willingness to help you through the fights, who will watch you, guide you and push you when the legs are tired. When you don’t want to try any more to build your business, you need a push to get you off your behind.

Don’t invite the usual pity party guests as accountability partners.?

This is about changing your mindset and pushing forward, showing up. You cannot have someone who is more comfortable giving you comfort than holding you accountable.?

I prefer to have a brutally honest friend whose words sometimes make me angry than the one who encourages me to give up and move on.

If you cannot have that person in your personal circle, maybe a mentor in your industry or someone you respect will be willing to hold you accountable.?

This might mean a monthly call or each quarter to check goals and milestones, and make real plans. Someone may charge a fee for that and sometimes it is money well spent.

Commit to showing up.

So this is a call to action as we end this 2 part series of following your competence not your passion; commit to showing up and you will see the doors opening.?

Make that sales pitch. Write and present that business proposal. Make that cold call. Apply for that job. Submit that tender. Register that company. Write that message. Register for that class. Through your hat over the fence and if you have to, burn those boats.

If you have something you have to do and have been reluctant, I would love to encourage you by just telling you to go for it, put a hat ?????????? emoji in the comments and say ‘I'm throwing my hat over the fence’. You dont have to give any details. You can tag someone who can encourage you as well.

Go for it! Follow what you’re good at and it will become your passion.

Read Part 1 of this 2 part series here, you can leave a hat? there as well ??.

All the best.

BT??

btganyo.com

?