How Far Can You Stretch Yourself?

What is the one thing you are super afraid of doing?

Public speaking?  Singing?  Being the Leader?

Just the very thought of public speaking had the power to make me start hyperventilating.

And then I became an assistant professor.  Basically, my job was to get up and start speaking to the class or to do presentations at conferences.

That doesn’t seem like a big deal right?  Have you ever seen someone get up to speak and they are visibly shaking or their voice starts cracking?

Horrible isn’t it?  It was this realization that it’s worse to fail at speaking than to actually do the speaking that pushed me to learn techniques on how to control my fear.  That and well, I like to stretch myself.  I don’t want to be afraid of public speaking.

And now, well I’m not going to tell you I love public speaking, but let’s just say I don’t fall apart when it’s necessary to do it.

Why?   Because I practice.  And I keep trying.  The more public speaking I do, the easier it becomes. My self-confidence builds.  What was once a horrible nightmare is now reasonably within my comfort zone of things I can do.  And not only that but there is a lot of money to be made on the speaker circuit if you are even just mildly decent – A good business model for nurses (we need more nursing speakers!!!).

My next major fear and project is to tackle more videos.  Ahhhh!!!

Being in front of the camera makes me go white and my mind blank.  Not exactly the ideal host for impromptu conversation.  Right now video marketing is a real stretch for me, but I’m willing to try and try and try.

So I had this opportunity to be on “Be Efficient TV” which is a YouTube show where the main host interviews entrepreneurs for tips and tactics to help others.

I wanted to share the interview with you for a couple of reasons (Click here to see the interview):

1. Because I’m sharing ideas of how nurses are making a difference in business and I think it’s important to encourage other nurses to do it

AND

2. Because I’m still in my stretch zone and I want to encourage you to enter into your stretch zone.

If you only ever see people when they are outrageously successful, then you might somehow believe that if you struggle to achieve success, somehow you are doing something wrong.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  If you aren’t struggling and afraid of every step of the way, something IS WRONG!

I’m trying to overcome the horrible fear of doing videos.  And the only way to gain self-confidence is to just do exactly what you are afraid of doing.

So what are you afraid of?  And yes, I’m going to ask you to confront that fear, Today….

My son Matthew who is only 4 says to me that he is “a little shy around older kids”. And I tell him that it’s ok to be shy, it’s ok to be afraid, let that be a part of you.

What is more important is to have courage.  And quite simply, courage is being afraid or petrified of something and doing that something anyway.  Whether it’s just saying “hi” to the big kids or allowing yourself to be videotaped on LIVE TV, Or simply acknowledging out loud that you are ready to do something else in nursing, courage is more important to nurture.

Do you have the courage to stretch yourself to start a nursing business?  Maybe you don’t have an idea, you don’t have business skills, you don’t have any clue where to start but you have a burning desire to do something else and you want to do something more….

Little by little, step by step, your self-confidence grows, but only if you have the courage to start stretching yourself!