Every now and then I’m transported back in time, to high school, trying desperately to impress the cool kids.
I was not a cool kid.
I was a goofball who bounced between groups, aka seeking approval from a range of audiences.
But that feeling of not being cool enough to fit in with the ‘right’ crowd is a bitch to shake, even when my rational brain reminds me it doesn’t matter and they’re not the people I want to hang with anyway.
This time travel happens when I see certain posts on social media.
Posts with snark.
These posts are like a shotgun, spraying snark vibes across the internet, heedless of whose self-esteem they puncture.
I bet you’ve seen them.
Posts packed with passive-aggressive judgement.
Posts with an implied eye roll and a snigger behind the hand.
Posts that deflate your bubble of energy.
Posts that make you second-guess yourself.
When we read them, we make them about ourselves.
I usually jump straight into cataloguing and reviewing my own behaviour to make sure I don’t fit into the camp of people being lambasted.
Then, I remember that I don’t have time for faceless judgement.
As Brené Brown says*, “If you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.”
Yep.
I remind myself that I am in the arena, poking my toes outside my comfort zone, experimenting and trying new things, and being open to where they will take me.
I don’t need to impress another business owner, firing out their ‘tude on Twitter. Nor can I afford to keep my marketing in stasis because of what others might think.
When I find myself giving meaning to social media rants, I take a moment to remind myself that the post is not about me. I consciously wish them well in my heart and put my focus back on my work. I might look at some recent testimonials (what I call my YAH file) and centre myself back into what I am trying to achieve.
It’s not always easy, but it’s something I work at because I know that if I let it, a little wobble can turn into full-on derailment of my own making.
Don’t stop making progress in your business and in your life because of some rando tweet.
Put yourself in the arena.
Share a post encouraging clients to book in.
Do your first FB live.
Write a blog and hit publish.
Pitch a client you’d love to work with.
Get on with your work.
* The Brené Brown quote is a comment on the longer quote from Theodore Roosevelt.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
