I used to hate public speaking.

By “hate” I mean that, given the choice between public speaking and being boiled in molten lava, I’d pick public speaking but only because I don’t have access to lava.

I mean, I’ve called in sick to work to avoid giving presentations. I even turned down a lucrative promotion because weekly presentations would have been part of the job. Awesome. Well done, me.

This is a perfect example of what we talked about last week: “Look Over There!” Syndrome and why you’re NOT getting things done.

Translate this fear of public speaking into areas of your own life and what do you have? Fear of writing, fear of starting a business, fear of appearing average, fear of coming across as an arrogant prick, fear of getting dumped, fear of on and on and on.

These fears have many symptoms, but really I only care about one of them because in that symptom is also the cure.

What If Nike’s motto had been “Just Do It Something Else”?

What do you do about fear? The popular school of thought suggests writing down your fears so you can face them. “List them all out,” says the adviser, “ten at a time or by the hundreds, then pick them apart and dismantle them and you’ll be good to go.”

I have no doubt that this method works for some people. But I think I have a method that works even better, saves time and gets you from Point A to Point B much faster.

My big secret as it relates to “finding and facing your fears” is as follows:

In the light of your goals, when weighed against your hopes and dreams and aspirations, fear should factor in as nothing more than a speed bump.

The whole concept of finding your fears so you can face them seems to me to be a diversion. Looking “over there” so you can find out why you can’t do what’s right here is a diversion.

I’m not saying fear doesn’t exist, nor am I saying I don’t get afraid. Fear is quite real to me and I feel it just like the next guy. What I am saying is that in the light of your goals, when weighed against your hopes and dreams and aspirations, fear should factor in as nothing more than a speed bump.

Why?

Because a list of fears really only tells you something you already knew: you’re afraid of stuff.

Don’t believe me? Go ahead then and make a list of all your fears, and make it as long as you can. Problem with doing that is when you’ve finally exhausted that bottomless morass of second-guessing your omnipotent self, you still won’t have written a book. Or started that business or whatever. And the longer your list of fears, the longer you’re putting off doing the stuff that counts.

What if you just considered fear was a minor inconvenience?

So far, this is a lot of empty talk and I’m probably coming across as Mr. Crazy. I mean, there’s no way getting into massive, fast, agile, extroverting production is going get you anywhere. Impossible!

So, let’s look at some real life examples of absolutely crazy people in action and see what we can find out:

Case Study #1 : Showing Your Face on Video

My buddy Charlie Gilkey was afraid of recording a video of himself playing guitar and posting it on his site. Yet he wanted to, and he’d promised it to his blog visitors.

In achieving this goal of producing a video Charlie had many many options:

Record and post a video of himself playing guitar, tuck tail and run, debate recording a video, practice for 8 more years, take a video mastering class, hire a consultant, get therapy, get awfully curious about how YouTube works, wonder why he was afraid, not play because he was afraid, etc.

But Charlie is a smart guy. He took the first option and recorded and posted a video of himself playing guitar. Done. Goal achieved. Afraid or not, he did it.

Maybe fear played a part…but it was a minor role.

Case Study #2 : Writing That Book

Stephen King used to write a lot. He writes a lot now, but he used to too. (Credit to Mitch Hedberg for that one). Stephen’s career could have been much much different.

See, the book that started his career almost didn’t see the light of day because it was too busy being in the garbage.

That’s right. Stephen was working on a book and just tossed it out. Why? He was afraid. The book was about a girl, and being a man, Stephen figured he had no place writing such a tale. Nor was he menstruating, while his character was, so he figured he had no place writing about that either. And and and.

Lucky for him, his wife pulled the unfinished manuscript out of the trash, read it, thought it was good and told him to finish it. He did and it went on to be published under the title Carrie. It was his first major sale and earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Again…fear obviously played a part, but it was just a background character.

Case Study #3 : Step Up to the Mic

To get over my own fear of public speaking, guess what I did?

Step 1: I read books and books and books about skillful presenting, slowly getting overwhelmed by all the new information. Yeah. That didn’t work so hot because I wasn’t even up to a point where “skillful presenting” was any sort of worry. No, I was worried about dropping dead from fright and vomiting on my own shoes.

Step 2: I tried to think of all the times when I’d done a lousy job of public speaking in the past, hoping somehow that it would be cathartic. Didn’t work. In fact, this seemed to bolster the idea that I just “wasn’t built for it.” Not to mention it made it painfully obvious that, having screwed up many times in the past, there was no reason why I wouldn’t screw up again. Great. Making lists of why you’re not so hot strikes me as a crap idea.

Step 3: I watched a bunch of pros give presentations in YouTube videos. These were real-life examples of how it should be done, I figured, and it would be like mentoring. Seth Godin, Ze Frank, Chris Guillebeau…they were my guides. Yup, didn’t work. These guys were “too good,” and obviously “had skills I don’t have,” and “must have just been naturals at it.”

Step 4: I got tired of being afraid. I got tired of worrying about public speaking and never actually doing it. So I spoke in public. I started with a small group and worked my way up. At first it was a nightmare, I won’t deny it. It was frightening. And I screwed up. And I was embarrassed. Cool thing is, I didn’t even die or lose a limb. This technique, as you might imagine, worked like a charm.

You’re better than you think

If your fear is anything like mine, it feels like a giant semi-truck driving through your head and chest, exploding on impact and spilling out a cascade of vitriolic acid which then catches on fire, while people point and laugh at you and post the whole mishap on YouTube where it subsequently gets seven million hits and thousands of scathing comments about you and your family.

Yeah. That’s fear. I get it.

But, so what?

I mean…do you know who you are? You’re amazing, that’s who. I know we live in a quick-fix, pill-popping, microwave dinner culture (some of us). And I know that spending painful hours at honing your craft or confronting things you’d rather not is…well…painful. But what else are you going to do?

You’ve got a craft to practice and a book to write, don’t you? So get on it. Tripping over the daisies to find the reasons you’re NOT doing your stuff just leads to not doing more stuff.

You can do it. Just like I did, and I’m nothing special. I just couldn’t fool myself any longer.

So sit down, do what you’re doing and confront what you’re doing. Get on it. Before long you’ll hit “the zone” and start rocking your shit. Yeah, maybe you’ll still be afraid and maybe not. But even if you are, at least you’re being afraid and productive. You’ll be in that awesome place of “Holy shit I’m doing it, but I’m afraid, but look, Ma, I’M ACTUALLY DOING IT!”

Fear is no substitute for action, and it only stops those who let it. Don’t be one of them.

Go do your thing, do it fast, do it proud.

And never slow down for those speed bumps.

A famous philosopher once said: If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. If he gets distracted and walks away while you’re teaching him, he won’t learn anything and will starve to death.

With this post, I’m going to hazard a guess and try to do my best to tell you why you might be having trouble getting things done in life. I don’t mean just going grocery shopping or cleaning the house, although what I’m about to say is applicable there, too.

No, I mean the big stuff. Like becoming an architect. Or finishing your novel. Or accomplishing that “crazy dream” you thought up when you were only 5 and which hasn’t left you yet.

In the beginning…

Once upon a time, you dreamed of accomplishing Something Grand. Maybe you were young when you thought it up, and maybe not. But your first thought was, “I’m doing this,” and somehow it was just right.

The world got quiet and maybe things seemed very simple to you right at that moment, for you hadn’t yet thought of the mechanics of how it would all be done. Nonetheless, you knew it was true: “Yeah, gosh. That’s it. That will be me. This will be my life.”

And things were good and the sun came up and the dew sparkled in the grass. For the next week you hardly needed to sleep, such was your excitement.

Hey…look over there!

Then, ugh, you hit some slight resistance. Maybe it turned out the effort wasn’t quite what you’d expected. Maybe there was some funky nomenclature surrounding your goal and it was all just “too complicated.” Maybe it turned out you weren’t such a natural at it as you thought you’d be.

And that beautiful, simple, true goal you had…it got buried a bit. It didn’t get any smaller, just got rusty maybe.

Then your friend told you the idea was shit and your parents sort of scoffed and said, “Well…uh…I guess that’s cool but you should probably have a backup plan.” And you concluded your parents must be stupid, but nonetheless you got a bit more introverted about it. Your dream rusted just a bit more, but didn’t die.

Then the effort involved with the goal got even tougher. I mean, who knew that writing a book could be such a bitch? And why did manufacturing have to screw up a whole batch of plastic? And who am I to start a business…I’m nobody!? So you got sidetracked just a little bit more. More rust; same big dream.

But…there are so many diversions.

Yeah, there are diversions. And there are a lot of them.

And the bigger your dream, and the more complex it is, and the more time it takes to accomplish it, the more diversions there are going to be.

Here…let’s all pretend we have an IQ of around 49 and try a little mental exercise:

I would like you to decide to go make yourself a sandwich. I don’t care if you want a sandwich right now or not. Just decide to go make yourself a sandwich.

Now, in regards to this sandwich’s construction, there are two methods of attack:

Goal Attainment Method One: Go make a sandwich. Keep track of how long it takes you.

Goal Attainment Method Two: Don’t go make a sandwich, but instead sit there and think about why you don’t want a sandwich. Then wonder why you’re afraid of sandwiches. Then think to yourself, “Hmmm…I’m afraid of making a sandwich, and I don’t really want one to begin with. I wonder why. Maybe I’ll go see a psychologist since it’s probably that Can’t-Make-a-Sandwich disorder I heard about.” Then hire an outside consultant to help you determine the best way to approach your sandwich dilemma. Then wonder why I’m asking you to make a sandwich to begin with, and conclude that I must be some sick pervert. Then just for good measure, debate calorie count and FDA stipulations about your available bread type.

Now, guess which method produces a sandwich fastest. And guess which method might never ever ever result in a sandwich.

That’s right. And although this is a horribly simplistic idiotic analogy, I wouldn’t write it off as inapplicable.

For this whole sandwich soap opera is your life.

And that was just a sandwich. What if the goal was actually…you know…a GOAL. Like being a CEO. Or starting a knitting company and selling your wares. Or losing 200 pounds.

Those things might take time. They might take education. They might take gaining an entirely different skill set than you currently possess. There will be diversions a’plenty.

What do we do about this?

Well…what we do about this is incredibly simple. More simple than making a sandwich even. And I’m going to tell you all about it.

Next week.

Come on back next Wednesday and we’ll talk some more about this. Subscribe Now! so you don’t miss it. In the meantime, read this post and then read it again. See if any of it is true for you. I’ll bet maybe a little of it is, even if it’s just the fact that you want a sandwich.

Quick little note

Those of you who are long-time fans are saying to yourselves: “Wow. Two posts in one week. What the hell is going on here?”

The answer is that Wednesdays are my new posting days. I was going to start posting every Tuesday and Thursday, but going from roughly 5 posts a year to two a week is a feat for better folks than I.

So yeah. This site means a lot to me. And the people I’ve met/helped/gotten help from mean way more than that. So I’m back. Tell your friends.

Based on some of the things I’ve got planned for the near future, I’ve decided to change up the look of Ignite Living a bit. The new design is more of a spit polish than an entire overhaul, ‘cause who’s got time for redesigning their own site, right?

It might interest you to know the conversation I had with myself and what inspired the new design, so here goes:

One upon a time I woke up and was surfing around the site. As I’m looking around it dawned on me that IgniteLiving is a bit…pale. There’s not much of an “ignite” feel going on here, is there? No…this is about as ignited as a pad of college-rule paper in the backpack of some kid who just got a swirly. (That’s the old Bully-Puts-Your-Head-in-the-Toilet gag, for you non-Americans.)

And what’s with that logo? Was that stolen from a cabbage farmer in the early 1800’s? We definitely need to give that a more Web 2.0 feel, maybe add some shine and dimension.

Wait…ahem…isn’t Web 2.0 over? (Quick search of Google.)

Yes, it appears Web 2.0 is over. Okay. So I guess we do the new logo with Web 3.0 style! Yay! (Crowd goes wild!)

Wait…what’s Web 3.0? (Quick search of Google.)

Shit…I don’t know what Web 3.0 is. Hey, here’s an idea! Let’s do Web 2.0 instead! (Crowd silently munches its popcorn.)

Now that I’m done lying, let me explain…

While the majority of my bread and butter comes from my web design biz, more and more is coming from this site and/or services related to it. I think I may be the only blog owner on the planet who can never write anything ever and still have people coming around all the time. (I love you guys.)

There’s a small but insanely devoted bunch of folks who follow this site and send me emails like, “Dude…you need to write more,” and “Dude…seriously, you need to write more,” and “Dude…are you writing yet?”

There are also less annoying followers who say things like, “I need help with something,” and “My business ain’t so hot. What do I do about that? Figure it out and I’ll give you lots of monies.” And I help them. They like it and I like it and that works out the way it should.

However, I find that often I am answering the same old questions. That’s all fine, as I’m very well aware that they are NEW questions to those asking and that’s the important part of the equation. Nonetheless, as a time- and sanity-saving measure, I’m going to be rolling out some books, mini-courses about various business aspects, a newsletter…the works.

Do we really need another newsletter?

No, you don’t really need another one, but you’ll actually want mine. I know that everyone’s got a newsletter nowadays. And I know that most people who sign up for newsletters really only want the bonus you get for signing up. To battle that, I will be publishing a newsletter that is fast, intelligent, concise and funny as shit. You will like it. And you will get discounts on all the things I produce in the future: books, mini-courses…all that other stuff I mentioned.

And yes, of course. You will also get the obligatory bonus for signing up. Can you guess what it is?

A large pile of money, maybe? No, that’s a terrible guess.

Remember the Human’s Guide to Freelance Living book that I published about 1,000 years ago? The one that was downloaded approximately 30 berzillion times?

Well, the new version is nearly finished. Not only is it just as good as it was, it’s better, bigger, longer and has a higher A-ha Moment to Page Count ratio than any other book in my house. AND it’s illustrated. By me.

In summary

So, that’s about it for now. Keep track of me by Subscribing and you won’t miss what’s coming up.

Oh…and this coming Wednesday is a post you’re not gonna want to miss: Do you have “Look Over There!” Syndrome? Sounds silly, but it’s not, as it’s THE answer to why people don’t accomplish what they set out to. For all the screwing around I do here, this one is deadly serious. Don’t miss it!

Cheers, gang!