Facing

When confronting fears, how one exposes themselves to it is as important, if not more, than the exposure itself. For instance, despite 2 different sales jobs, countless hours of preparation, and years of PR with Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, hockey teams etc. selling everything from xmas trees to raffle tickets and bottles, I still have immense fear about selling. This is due to not practicing 'how' to be while selling all those years; instead of learning to stay calm, and control my thoughts, I was focusing all my energy on getting it over with and the hell out of wherever i was. Learning to enjoy it had only flashed in my worried mind a few times over all those years.

Despite all of this, I am going out into the business community today to look for English students. I feel as if I could be a claustrophobic asking to be nailed into a coffin for 4 hours. So, the process starts NOW. Who am I going to be? Confident, self-assured, calm, and present. What am I going to say? I'll be using the 10 portuguese words I more or less know so far. What am i going to do? I'll give them my photocopied sheet with all the information, walk out the door, and go to the next one.

I think this all ties into the mango tree story from yesterday. I drove by a big one filled with ripe ones, thinking "I'd sure like to grab one of those, but it's on someone's property." Driving on, I decided to turn back. As I pulled up to the side of it, I saw a man with a long pole and a pail on the end of it, standing on the patio rooftop coaxing the yellow fruits off the tree. I asked him "how much?" and he motioned for me to come around to the entrance gate. Inside was his supposed young, hot wife with 2 kids. I patiently waited as one child, about 6, collected 4 or so mangos. I asked again, as the child offered me the bag, "how much?". His wife said "nothing!" I said "C'mon, let me pay for something here!" "No!" she was adamant. "Ok", I said. "Let me give a tip for the mango collectors here." I wasn't about to take no for an answer this time, giving them each 1 real coin.

Morale of the story: just get over to that mango tree and ask if you can have one.

And if that doesn't work, keep things in perspective. 250 feared dead in Brasilian floods.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/13/3112044.htm?section=justin