I’m not one to shy away from a challenge… but I must say, I’ve had to be more courageous lately than I would like. But I’m NOT complaining!
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I was in the hospital for a week and a half in late July. I found out I was deficient in Vitamin B12 (technical term: pernicious anemia). If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen my excited tweets when my blood levels go up each week (and the not-so-happy ones when my blood levels went down).
I had to go through a lot of tests while in the hospital, not to mention blood transfusions and other fun stuff. Since getting out, I’ve learned to give myself B12 shots and I also have weekly, sometimes twice weekly, blood draws. My veins are less than awesome to begin with, and all the poking and prodding makes it worse.
Like I said… I’ve had to summon a lot of courage.
And today I had to get up even more courage. I had some biopsies on my stomach lining to test for Celiac (the allergy to gluten). I had to be under anesthesia for this. And this was the first time I’ve had to do it. I was very nervous. And I had to get an IV – not a fun experience for me. Like I said – lackluster veins! They had to poke around in 3 different areas before they found a vein. OUCH.
The thing is, I’ve always been really healthy. All of this medical stuff is new to me. It’s scary. But I’m handling it and I’m doing a pretty damn good job of it, if I do say so myself. I don’t get upset, I just focus on getting better.
This is all a big lesson – and I’m learning from it.
Being courageous isn’t easy. But sometimes, it’s the only way to be.
And that is a lesson you can definitely apply to your business…. I know, because I’ve been pushing myself to be more courageous in my business, as well.
One of my goals is to do more in-person speaking events. I love meeting and talking with people face to face. Don’t get me wrong – I love teaching classes online and through conference calls, and I’m not going to stop that. I just want to do more in person stuff.
I recently submitted some panel ideas to SXSW’s upcoming Interactive Conference. It’s a step in the right direction! (Learn more about the proposals I sent in and how to vote for them by clicking here. Your vote will help me! So please vote between now and Sep 4).
We can all decide every day if we are going to be courageous or not. For some, the decision may be to start a business, for others it could be to start using WordPress for the first time, and for others it may be to send out their first newsletter or approaching a potential business partner and asking them if they’d be interested in working on a project together. Trust me – I’ve faced all of those things and each one took courage. But I did; I survived it; and I’m a better person for doing so.
Now – what are you going to get all courageous for?