Get Uncomfortable
Often we all fall into this trap called “comfort zone.” Whether it’s exercise, job, personal goals, business, business goals, we are always told to get out of our comfort zone.Why? Magic happens when you push yourself out of your comfort zone. When we know something amazing is going to happen to us why do we hang on to what’s not comfortable? The answer to that is simple too. “Fear of unknown.” We are willing to take it all in does not matter whether it causes happiness or not because we are afraid of change and most importantly the factor of unknown.
But how do we see magic happen for ourselves? Well, after being in comfort zone for several years myself and jumping into the unknown, seeing liberating results happening if not magic I would say the key to see magic happen is getting uncomfortable and taking baby steps to becoming uncomfortable. Crazy? Yes, you got to be!
When I decided to be a stay at home mom and followed on to design a patent-pending diaper bag, there came some super odd moments. Just by creating the bags I was not done. I had to learn to talk to people, learn to sell.Oh boy, the selling part is the worst of all.
All my life, thus far I have been a buyer. I would try to avoid any sales person who would approach me. Even before they could contact me, I would take a different route. I would be super shy if I would meet them.There came the point where I had to become a salesperson. I never imagined in my life that I would be selling something.
But once I faced that moment, I thought I could do this. It was just one step that led to several actions from there on. I will share my very first sales attempt. It was most humbling and humiliating experience.
So once when I received the bags to sell. I packed all my bags and head to a baby shower event. Thankfully a friend came along, and I drove to downtown. Driving to a busy downtown was another significant milestone for me. I just had to tell myself I could do this. One small step I said to myself. So, we reached the event venue, and everyone in the event had already arrived and set up their tables and had fancy decorations, flyers and most of all well dressed.My friend and I looked at each other with a sigh and kept going.
I had to get my kids class work done, cook and feed before I could head out to the event. So when I got out of the house, I looked as if I was ready for bed.I picked up my friend directly from work, so she was nearly prepared to crash.
I noticed that some people had their eyes on the box.The box became center of everyone’s attention. Not because of the bags but because I was carrying a Graco car seat box :). I had to take my bags somehow, and it so happened that we just bought a car seat for our daughter the previous day.
As we parked our box, the lady next table asked us “are you representatives of Graco?”. But when I pulled out the bags from the box she knew the answer to her question.
I then just stood there shy and trying to figure out how I can approach the moms-to-be to talk about my product. My friend who noticed this told me “Madhu you are not going to see these folks tomorrow. You just have to get out and talk”. Thanks to her I took the first small step. I approached one mom and explained that I was the designer of this patent-pending bag and it does not look like diaper bag blah..blah. After 30 mins we were super swamped with amazing moms and parents. End of it, my friend told me that she is going live on my facebook. I panicked. Telling myself to take a small step made me do many more facebook lives to come.
Every small step you take gets you closer to something unusual. Take it today.As Swami Vivekananda said, “Take risks in life. If you win, you will lead.If you fail, you will guide.”All that matters is that one step forward and other measures will follow.
You never know what is on the other side of the mountain till you get to the top. So decide whether you want to be at the foot of the hill or get to the top.
Get uncomfortable.
Madhu
Madhu