To Find Success, Get Uncomfortable

Spending a week on cameras to shake myself up.

A year ago I’d have said I hate being on video.

Six months ago I decided to stop using that as an excuse not to lean into video content as a means for building my ghostwriting business.

This past week I’ve spent twelve hours a day being filmed for a documentary on entrepreneurship by The Blox.

I decided I needed to stop using my fear as an excuse. Before I chat more with you about how this week impacted my fear, I want to ask you to evaluate the uncomfortable feeling you’re allowing to hold you back.

Are you afraid of failure? Afraid of success?(Yep, this is a thing.) Afraid of publishing that blog article in case people get upset with you? Afraid of launching your business because you don’t know everything you need to in order to succeed?

Maybe your discomfort isn’t about fear, but about uncertainty. You don’t know which direction to go so you stay exactly where you are. No decision, no movement, no possibility of either success or failure.

Let’s explore how to reframe that uncomfortable feeling and transform it into something to propel you forward.

Uncover how your fear, anxiety, and indecision is holding you back.

My fear of cameras was keeping me off social media and keeping me from forming a personal brand and establishing myself as a thought leader. This hurt my authority and probably meant I was leaving money on the table.

Figure out where the discomfort comes from.

As an old millennial raised in a conservative midwestern town I learned that good girls don’t try to stand out. As much as I’ve worked to live authentically I still worry that showing up as my loud, opinionated, bisexual self on social media and elsewhere will alienate family members and friends from previous versions of my life.

Get real about what you want.

I want to write content for thought leaders in mental health, wellness and social justice spaces. I want to book speaking engagements to talk about this as well as mindset and disability recovery.

I want my new non profit to help as many people as possible.

To get what I want I need to move beyond my fear.

Decide to move into the discomfort.

We aren’t getting out of this process without decision making.

Making the decision involves listing the action steps you need to take in order to get from where you are (stuck, comfortable, and afraid) to where you want to be (successful, fearless, and forward-moving).

My steps included practicing being on camera, which is why I applied for The Blox, said yes to the casting calls, and flew to a random casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Could I have gotten over my fear in other ways? Sure… but go big or keep your ass on the couch.

I wouldn’t say I’m over my fear. I have more steps to complete. But, I’m committed to the process and my action steps and I’m shaking a bit less on camera than I was on Monday.

What are you going to do to get uncomfortable?

Maria Chapman is the CEO of Connected Ghostwriting, LLC. She believes words are the path to connect with ourselves, others, and our world. Maria is a chronic illness warrior, a disability advocate, and the parent of five humans, most of whom are no longer tiny. When she isn’t managing a gifted team of writers and editors, she reads in the sun or walks her bat-eared rescue pup.