Doing What Makes You Uncomfortable Because …

I think that I may have first heard this statement in the mid-eighties as a part of my association, at that time, with Dale Carnegie …

“Successful people will do what unsuccessful people won’t do even though they don’t like to do it either”

The reason being is that successful people are motivated by the results whereas unsuccessful people will be hamstrung by the activity. I find this to be uncomfortable and, therefore, I won’t do it. Making cold calls would be a good example as would asking for the order.

Life is full of things that, while not particularly enjoyable, may be critical to your success. Doing what is uncomfortable is a stretching exercise that will expand, or increase, your skills and has the potential to do so in multiple areas.[Tweet “Growth comes from doing what we find to be uncomfortable!”]

While I have always been in sales, which I continue to love, now I find myself writing and consulting in the area of social selling. Personally, I am faced with two challenges in this transition …

I don’t find writing to be particularly comfortable or, for that matter, even enjoyable.
I’m task oriented, barely social, and intensely private.

Social

I hate having my picture taken (or even taking pictures of a personal nature) and I am not about to tell the world anything about my private or family life. This helps to explain why you will not find me on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

This is not to say that I am not good at building relationships. I am. Selling is inherently a social activity and one where I have been successful. Introverts can sell. Ambiverts, those of us who can exist in both “vert” spectrums when needed, can excel in sales. We may not appear to be overt about either. We stretch both ways.

Annoying activities

Social selling, leveraging social media to augment your traditional selling skills, offers up its own unique set of available strategies and tactics and some of those are … annoying. I will not deploy any of the following technologies because I hate it when they are foisted on me …

Auto DM’s
Template messaging
Pop-up requests for sign-ups
Pop-up ads of any kind
Connecting indiscriminately

These might all work (many people believe that they do), and I have no issues with those who choose to use them (I might question their effectiveness). I’ve tried most but, I just can’t bring myself to continue to do so. Stretch where you can but, ultimately you have do what is right for you.

Writing

Writing is a struggle for me. Then there are times that I flat hate doing it. Where others might be able to write an article in 30 minutes or less, it might take me weeks. Part of this is my inability to focus on a task that I find to be tedious while another part of me obsesses over choosing the right words.

Yet, I continue to write and most of the public recognition that I have received can be directly attributed to this activity. I can’t believe that people have actually paid me to write. It’s not something that I even think that I do particularly well. Go figure. I do it because I am motivated by the results of doing so.

You find ways

There are certainly avenues to be active, interesting, and transparent on social media without compromising those things that comprise your personal boundaries. I might let my hair out, what there is of it, from time to time on Twitter. I gravitate professionally to LinkedIn where the focus is more business in nature.

I will continue to write but, 1,500 word articles might be two 750 word posts in the future. I could use some practice with brevity regardless. I’ve been writing consistently for over seven years now so article repurposing (republishing writings on different platforms) has a definite appeal. Curating articles is another path.

I have cut back on writing for others. However, guests are now asking to submit articles for this site. Sweet and thank you! My “How I Work Social Selling” series features some very influential folks on this subject matter and their participation is a win for them, a win for me and, most importantly, a win for readers! Thank you!

It’s all about the stretch

The simple truth is that nothing that I am doing professionally today was even remotely on my radar ten years ago. My curiosity encouraged me to begin to explore areas that I had shown little to no interest in. I believe in evaluating opportunities prior to their adoption or dismissal. Having a persistent nature helps.

Whenever we stretch, this exercise will be, by nature, uncomfortable. All change is uncomfortable. One thing for certain is that, until you try, you will really never know whether or not something will be for you. If it isn’t, that’s also perfectly ok.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!