Fear of No and Failure

Thing about when you see someone interesting or attractive. Do you approach him or her and introduce yourself? Say hello? Or are you like the majority of people who will talk yourself out of stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance? Instead, you scour the Internet and social media to try finding that intriguing person... when all you really had to do was say hello. 

Imagine your last job interview. You spent a half hour or more being interrogated, probed about your experiences. Then, it was your turn. Ask away! What did you ask? Did you ask what other qualities you need to demonstrate to prove you were right for the role? Essentially, did you ask for the job? Why or why not? What is the worst that could happen if you ask? 

In both situations, you could be told no.

Why are we fearful of the "what ifs" and "could happens"? Why does the big two-letter word push our interests aside and keep us from potential? 

The biggest weakness in personal development and sales is fear of "no" or fear of "failure". You could be one of two people who have to this point:

Option 1. 
"Oh, I see what Caroline is getting at! I'll continue reading."

Option 2. 
"Pff, I don't care about personal development and/or I'm not in sales. This does not apply to me [as you close this screen]."

I have a confession: I cheated.

The first step towards recovery is acknowledging your failure or weakness. I have a confession: I cheated. 

The worst thing about cheating is whenever someone cheats, he or she may not acknowledge the probable cause or the "why" of the situation. Well, I am about to do just that.

I cheated on myself.

As you may know, I started a new role back in March with Syngenta as a Seed Advisor Manager (abbreviated SAM), and a few weeks later, I also started training for a bodybuilding competition. At the time, I figured I could easily handle to large life changes happening at the same time. I was wrong. It is challenging, mentally draining and above all, demotivating. I pushed myself too hard in both work and training and am now paying the consequences.

View of Weihl Farms in Perrysburg, Ohio from the pasture.

One week ago. Just a bum look.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went home to Ohio to see family and friends. This was the first time going home since Christmas. Yes, I know. I am crazy. I should have gone back home before now. At the time, I didn't see the need. Now, I do. To have life balance, you cannot work all the time. It is not healthy. Some might argue "I enjoy my work and am passionate about it". So am I! But, you know what? I have other priorities and life passions that I need to prioritize sometimes. I had not been doing that. I have concluded this as the cause of my cheating.

I planned a meeting with my Seed Advisors the week after Memorial Day. The focus of the meeting was to share updates on planting progress, agronomic updates, discuss tactics on how to continue relationship building through summer and talk about programs and business settlement details that will play a great importance in the coming weeks. We held the meeting on Thursday and I collaborated with some other Syngenta employees to split the talking points. The meeting was fine and my Seed Advisors expressed they had some takeaways. However, I think it sucked.