Facing Your Fears - I Mean Really Facing Them

No...I mean really...define them...face them...get those sorry sonsabitches out of the way!

We just celebrated the anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of this planet. One Hundred Fifty Thousand men stormed the beach that day. Think they were scared? Damn straight. But two things should be noted here:

1. Courage is not the absence of fear. It's having fear and acting anyways.

2. These men trained over and over and over -- in fact all military operations are that way -- so there is no hesitation. It is automatic.

Watch this video before going on:
(turn your speakers up)



I find this concept to be fascinating the more and more I consider it (if you don't "get it" right away, that's OK. Maybe take a look at it again and again, and THEN it will sink in). It's fascinating to me because I have always been about focusing on your goals -- what you want, where you want to go, how success would look. I have never focused on the fears. I just tried to ignore those...

BUT...

Ignoring them for me didn't make them go away. It just made it less painful maybe? I did things that wouldn't expose me to great pains -OR - as Tim Ferris is pointing out in this video, the perceived pains I MIGHT encounter...

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."

Epictetus

Trust me boys and girls, I have made decisions that would make most men mess their pants. I had a real estate business to up [see here]. I have had that same business crash and burn. Real friggin' hard. I have had cancer...had my Mom die from cancer...had my Dad have a stroke. I've seen the fearful side up close and personal. I just kept doing things that brought me closer to those goals I wanted, though. I knew life was short (see cancer-see stroke), and I wanted the most. I never really defined my fears, though (a fringe benefit from having a failed business and health threatened is that I know you will survive and live to tell about it another day).

I also know that I am fearful of be thought of as foolish and stupid. So, in an act to inoculate myself, here goes defining my fears about creating Ultimate Officials, the SWAT Team -- basically Ref 2.0 -the personal training and hockey referee mentoring program that teaches, promotes, and evaluates primarily on the web and through video.

Worst-Case Scenarios That Could Happen

• Others make fun of me
• Supervisors get pissed that I am working with officials in "their territory"
• The "Old Guard" gets pissed because I am asking for a subscription fee, when everything in the past has always been done on a volunteer basis (kind of - and I can actually argue this one 'till I'm blue in the face.

Things I could do to Minimize the Negatives

• Always act with integrity
• Offer a service that delivers
• Coach others up to a 100% effort level
• Improve officials, which makes a supervisors job MUCH, MUCH easier.

Actions I Can Take

• Follow my original business plan that I proposed back in 2007 to USA Hockey.
• Things included in the plan are:

1. Monthly newsletter, blog, paper newsletter, email updates, articles (done!)
2. Put on monthly FREE Seminars, focusing on skating, fitness, referee development
   
3. Have an "Interview of the Month" available to members
4. Run a Physical Fitness Contest with Prizes
5. Set up an online forum, workout sharing site, and resource center
6. Promote, teach, and develop referees from my book (that's reference #2 - I'm getting better already :).
   

Just like in the video, what would be my POSSIBLE pain from the first list? About a 5. What would be my potential gain if I minimized the POSSIBLE negatives and took action? Definitely an 10.

Stay tuned for many exciting, new, and, most definitely, different things from Ultimate Officials and the SWAT Team.