I am big on the self help stuff, I read a lot of it, and I try to apply a lot of what I read. However, in my work on mentoring other people I have discovered that the easiest way to help yourself is to get off your backside, think of some way to make thing sbetter, and then take action.
Here are some examples from my own career which I have mentioned at different times on this blog.
I needed to learn how to sell. I was okay at influencing, but lousy at moving towards the point where somebody says "Okay, lets do this thing!". So I took a Saturday morning job, for commission only, selling Volkswagon Automobiles. Fantastic experience, and one I credit for giving me my understanding of some of the psychology in the sales process, as well as my confidence that I could sell!
I needed to work out how to get in the door with new large-account clients. I was listening to one of Robert Kiyosaki's books and I read where he took a job on telesales for a charity in the evenings to try to overcome his fear of failure. great idea I thought - so I did it. Worked a treat. I worked out how to keep people on the phone, how to use my voice positively, and got over any fear of rejection I might have had prior to that.
I used to suffer from chronic anxiety. Big time. Sweats, shaking, shallow breaths and panic attacks. The whole works. This of course made life very difficult for me in my role as a consultant and speaker. As you would imagine)
So I read a little about how to control anxiety through diet and exercise, how to minimize the likelihood of it by not running on adrenalin so much, and of course - I threw myself into every speaking engagement I could find or generate In particular, I thank Toast Masters for the career saving service they provide to consultants and managers all over the globe..
Again, it worked wonders. Like anything else it had its initial difficult moments; but then I blazed through at some point and today I love speaking in public!
With all of the blogs, eBooks, books, seminars and everything else out there today there is no excuse for you not being able to work out some way to tackle whatever it is that ails you. Right now I am wondering how to turn this blog into a valuable media property... and I am darn sure that it is not going to happen while I sit down wondering about it!
Want self help? Then help yourself!
