get uncomfortable

I finally did it!

It took six years, but I did it!

I was a little uncomfortable, nervous, scared (don't tell anyone), embarassed and I felt like a 6 year old child.

Let me paint the picture of what happened six years ago.........

I worked in a huge multi sports complex (PCYC) in Brisbane.

We would often get large sporting groups come in to use the facilities (schools, sporting teams, government groups)

But this one week, the Branch manager told me that Brian Kerle was coming to train some up and coming basketball athletes.

Now, if you are asking who is Brian Kerle (go ask your mum or dad!)

He was the Australian Olympic basketball coach for many years and he was the Brisbane Bullets coach for many more years.

Brian is like the Wayne Bennet of Basketball (he probably wouldn't like being referred to this way, so maybe best you don't tell him :)

I'm not a huge basketball fan (female beach volleyball is my thing) but I have a lot of time for people who have excelled in their industry.

So I made the decision that I was going to chat to Brian when he came in that afternoon...

He was due to come in at 5.30pm.

It was currently 10am.

Only 7 and a half hours to wait for my chance to say g'day to someone I highly admire.

Plenty of time to plan a great story to tell Mr Kerle, have him laugh to the point of tears and him and I become the best of buddies!

Or (as it turned out) plenty of time to work up a great deal of stress, nerves and thoughts of me completely making a fool of myself.

So, it goes without saying that when Brian came in that afternoon I was a bumbling mess!

I tried to get my name out and instead of saying "Hi Brian, my name is Matt", what came out was something more like what you would say after a dip in a freezing bath.

"HHHi bbbbbbBrian, MMMY nnnname iiiis MMMMMMatt"

Very confident and comfortable , I know :)

For the next six years this day plagued me no end.

Any time I met someone who I was looking forward to meeting I would think of THAT day and how I spoke like a 6 month old baby!

My head conjured up images of THAT day and how I begged myself not to act like that again.

Think about that for a second...

"I begged myself not to act like that"

As if in some way "myself" wasn't me and how I was asking this 'other me' to PLEASE be on it's best behaviour.

The funny thing is only I can make that choice to be cool, calm and collected.

There is no 'other me'.

Just me.

Once I realised this, I changed my talking (not just my thinking) but my talking. More specifically the way I talk to myself.

Instead of saying "Please act cool, calm and collected" I changed that talking to "I am cool, calm and collected"

It took all the 'maybes' out of the equation and it became a definite.

So it was 12.28pm, Thursday 4th February 2010

Just a normal day at Fatburners HQ, when who do you think should walk through the door?

That's right, none other than the big man himself, Mr Brian Kerle.

Like clockwork, my old mindset kicked in.

My head was repeating over and over "Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up"

But I did something different this time.

I changed my talk.

I said to myself, "I am going to go up to Mr Kerle, shake his hand, tell him my name as clear as a Summer's day and then I will tell him my embarrasing story that he played such a role in and together we will have a great laugh about it".

And you know what?

That's exactly what I did.

After six years of frustrations, unjustified stress and apprehesion, one moment changed it all.

I now have a new (more positive) image locked in my head for when I met new people!

Don't know if there is a moral to this story, perhaps you have a similar story where you have overcome a personal challenge?

In any case, keep intensity high and excuses low

Matt Collins