Do Things that Scare You

Hey guys,

Happy September!!

I hope you’re all maxin’ and relaxin’ and starting to wind down from your busy summer season.

And if you’re still going strong with rentals, or outdoor-ed – YOU CAN DO IT! YOU’VE GOT THIS! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE! *CLAP, CLAP, CLAP*

(I just did a race… that sort of motivation helped me… lol)

Annnnnyway…

Speaking of my race. Let’s talk about things that scare us, and why we should do them.

Fiddlers Run

I started running about two or three years ago, and fell in love. I did a 10k and a 5k, then I got ultra lazy and stopped running. So a few months ago, I signed my husband and I up for a 10k, cause I figured it would inspire me to start running again.

It didn’t.

I did not train for this thing AT ALL.

He did, but noooo not me.

So race day came and I said “yeah, I’ll do it anyway.”
So I ran about half of it, and walked half – I probably could have run more, but apparently I’m 90 and my hip started paining like crazy… so I went easy – I wasn’t going to break any records either way.

Walking into a scenario where you know you can’t quit (and lie down on the side of the road) and you also know you’re not prepared is sort of terrifying.

But I’m glad I did it, cause the race did the trick, and now I’m motivated to run again, and I also know I never want to do a 10k without preparing for it. Live and learn!

 

The Proposal

So, as I mentioned in this post, I decided that I was going to resign from my full-time job and focus on starting my own camp. (If that’s not doing what’s scary, I don’t know what is!!)

But everything sort of just started falling into place with it, and I just had a feeling in my gut that it was going to work out. Maybe it’s naïveté, maybe it’s confidence… maybe a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B… who knows. But I never wavered in my belief that it was going to happen and it was going to be awesome.

Then I started working with the folks at Common Good Solutions and they pointed out that I should probably do more than just camp to make this whole thing sustainable and suggested that I approach the folks at the camp I’ve been helping/ have an agreement with and suggest to them that I take over/ revamp/ improve their rental program.

I was like “yes, you’re right. I should do that. Brilliant idea.” Also… I was terrified.

I don’t know what the difference was, it’s the same group of people, essentially the same sort of thing… but for some reason I was a lot more frightened of a “no” this time around.

BUT, I did it anyway, I prepared a partnership proposal, emailed the chair of the board to run it by him first (because he has been the one looking after bookings), and I heard nothing.

So I followed up with a phone call… still nothing.

Now, in my rational, adult, brain I thought “ok, well something’s obviously come up. I know I’m going to see him soon at a camp event, I’ll have a quick chat with him then. I know that this person likes and respects me so there’s an obvious explanation for why he hasn’t gotten back to me.”

Which is all true.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the background, my 14-year-old lizard brain is shouting “OH my God… He HATES me!!! Crap, crap, crap. You shouldn’t have sent an email, you should have asked him to coffee instead then broached the subject so he couldn’t get away, you’ve ruined EVERYTHING, stupid adult Patti.”

I have a pretty good handle on the 14-year-old lizard brain, so I told her to shhh and sit down until after I saw him at the camp event. And if that didn’t go well, then the freaking out could commence.

Fortunately, it all worked out the way my adult, logical brain promised it would and he met me at my car as I was pulling into camp, gave me a big hug and said “I’m sorry, I haven’t been avoiding you! G and I are going to meet with you about your email”.

Then we both had to run off because we had things to do at the event.

So, whew! What a rollercoaster of emotions.

I’m really glad that I didn’t let fear stop me from asking, because this will make a huge difference in terms of how quickly I can get my business off the ground. We still haven’t had our meeting yet (because this just happened last Sunday) but I’ll keep you guys updated when I do!
I’m definitely feeling a bit more confident now than I was though.

The Podcast

So remember in this post when I was all secretive and alluded to a fun/ terrifying thing that Curt and I were doing?  Welp. Cat’s outta the bag. We’re doing a podcast!!

We figured it would be a fun (and mildly terrifying) way of expanding on what we’re doing with Patchwork (and our blog and website really) which is, talking about camp and recreation, sharing information in a fun, kinda goofy, but always helpful, way.

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So, the reason this is SO terrifying for me is because I feel like I’m pretty self-aware. And I know that I tend to have a polarizing personality… people either REALLY like me or they REALLLLLLLY don’t. There’s not usually a lot of people who go “eh, take ‘er or leave ‘er” (Maybe that’s just because I live in a place where people tend to have opinions on everyone…lol. Who’s to say!?)

Also, I’m freakin’ weird.
We’ve recorded our first two episodes, and I was trying so hard to act like a “normal human” LOL.
We’ll see how that turned out.

Annnnd, I have a Cape Breton accent – and now that I’m home, it’s getting thicker. And I sort of hate that. I cringed when I listed back.

BUT in the spirit of doing things that scare you to help you grow, I’m giving it a shot. And I had fun recoding the first two episodes. So hopefully, some of you will decide to listen, and you won’t think it’s the worst.

If we can entertain, inspire, or educate even one person, I’d be happy. And then if that person went to Patchwork and decided to become a seller I’d be even more happy!! hahaha (but seriously).

I’ll let ya’s know when the first episode goes live (pssst. It’ll be next week). Are you following me on social media? Depending on the device you’re using, check out the side bar or scroll down, all of my links are there. I’ll post there when we’re live too.

 

What things have you done lately that have scared you?
Is there something you’re thinking about doing that’s terrifying? I say go for it!
Tell me about it in the comment section below.

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