
I've been hanging out in my discomfort zone of late. Take the free audio course I recently created, for example. I wanted to create something that would both provide people with valuable content they can start applying to their careers right away, and serve as a marketing tool for my business. I had never done anything like it before.
The entire time I was working on it, I kept asking myself, "What if I'm wrong?" On the one hand, I was wondering, "What if I'm giving too much information away? What if I give so much information that people feel like there's no reason to buy what I have to offer?
On the other hand, I questioned, "What if there's too much promotional content in this? What if the fact that it has a marketing component alienates people? What if I'm laying it on too thick?"
I bounced back and forth as I created the audio course, accompanied by the question, "What if I'm wrong?"
Then at one point it occurred to me that the question was really, "SO what if I'm wrong?" Would it destroy my business? Not likely. Would it have any dire consequences that would still be echoing ten years from now. Probably not. If it were wrong, would it be easy for me to learn from that and revise it so I could do it better the next time? Yup.
If I got the balance wrong, it was little more than a momentary blip. By asking, "What if I'm wrong" instead of, "SO what if I'm wrong, I made it much bigger and much more menacing than it really was.
Adding that one little word to the question made all the difference. It reframed the entire situation, and put the consequences in a more realistic light.
Next time you find yourself worried about doing something imperfectly, ask yourself, "So what if I'm wrong?" You might just discover that the price of being "wrong" is infinitely lower than the price of doing nothing because you were afraid of being wrong.

Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst TM