“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death… Death is number two… Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” —Jerry Seinfeld
The above sounds absurd and I get it’s a joke, but the reality is that many people have fears that are irrational.
Don’t get me wrong, fears are real and some are debilitating, but I believe many are irrational if thought about. Let’s explore a few social fears: the ones where you have a fear of how people will react to you in a situation. Am I wearing the right clothes? Am I saying the right thing? What are others saying about me?
The fear of rejection is a valid one, but also an irrational one. Sales is one example. Many sales folks fear making that call, having that conversation, asking for the sale—they fear being too pushy or not worthy. What is the worst that can happen? You get a “no”.
If you do get a “no”, you are in no different place than you are were before you asked. So, you move on to the next one and the next one until you get a “yes”. There is no downside! But once you get that “yes”, you cannot change that elated feeling. Remember—you cannot control how others react, you can only control how you react.
So go ahead and take a chance! There is practically no down side.
“You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” —Dale Carnegie
Have a great weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!