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Brett and Kate McKay
What’s the worst that can happen if I give a speech at the conference
and bomb? No one will ever tell you, and you’ll never know you
were bad.
And so on and so on. With almost any scenario the worst that could
happen might be temporarily unpleasant, but is infinitely manageable.
6. Memorize this quote. We’ve already talked about the power of having
memorized quotes at your ready disposable. One of the best
passages to memorize and recite to yourself when you’re afraid is this
one from Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done
them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no
effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to
do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least
fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold
and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
7. There’s no need to feel the fear, just do it. A lot of self-help gurus
recommend that you fully feel the fear and go ahead and tackle it
anyway. I disagree. Giving the fear wholesale residency in your body
is just going to make you get all tense and freaked out. What I find
works is acknowledging the fear, but then immediately going for it,
even before your brain has time to dwell on what you’re about to do.
Just put your brain on cruise control. Check out a little bit and start
down a path you can’t return from. Dial that number. Walk into that
office. Once you’re in the mix, you’re forced to carry on, and you’ll
find that you do indeed have the strength to pull it off.
The men of Easy Company signed up to be paratroopers with only
the faintest idea of what jumping out of an airplane entailed. As they
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