“Gifts are the essence of art. Art isn’t made as part of an even exchange, it is your chance to create imbalance, which leads to connection. To share your art is a requirement of making it.”

“Art isn’t made as part of an even exchange, it’s your chance to create imbalance, which leads to connection.” Wow! What a great summary what it takes to be successful in today’s business environment. We need to unpack art, even exchange, imbalance, and connection.

Art

In the last 20 years, globalization has made the world significantly more competitive than it already had become over the last 50 years. The technology of the Internet has given any customer anywhere easy-to-utilize, instant access to the entire global marketplace. Customers can search for any product and service they may desire, find dozens, if not hundreds of businesses offering those products and services, and very quickly ascertain the offerings, pricing, and social reviews of those businesses and their products and services.

Businesses that sell widgets and vanilla services will not stand out, and hence, will not survive. If you want to sell something, you have to sell art. Your products and services need to stand out, be attractive and offer a unique experience to customers. This is art. Art is also realizing that some of your customers will be off-the-charts excited about what you offer, and others will hate it. The days of marketing to the masses and the middle of the bell curve are over. We need extreme marketing for artistic products and services.

Even exchange

Baby boomers bleed even exchange. It is part of our DNA. Customers exchange money for valuable products and services. If you offered a baby boomer something for free – immediately the guard would go up. You would be met with suspicion, What are you trying to pull? At a minimum, your assumption would be that whatever was being offered for free has very little value.

The younger generations have quite different expectations. Younger generations expect to get a significant amount of value, for free, with no strings attached. If you want to sell anything to the younger generation, you need to provide lounge chairs and couches, lava lamps, free wi-fi and plenty of atmosphere, all in a convenient, high-rent building and part of town. The younger generations, who are becoming the dominant generations, do not buy into the even exchange.

Create imbalance

Seth is referring to imbalance in the even exchange; in other words, deliver value for the sake of delivering value, with no expectation of getting paid back. This new business model, that is quickly replacing the even exchange model, is rooted in some pretty old principles. It makes me think of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In the business that I am a part of, this new business model inspires me to imagine efficient ways of providing ongoing value that can scale effectively – without linear increase costs as the giving away scales up. Sharing knowledge means accepting the consequences of someone taking and using your proprietary information.

At first glance, that mode of operation may seem somewhat irresponsible; however, there are a few factors that turn that thinking on its head. One, your proprietary ideas may not really be that great after all. We may be protecting ideas that aren’t all that revolutionary; and, you may find someone already thought of it before you did. Two, in a global market, anyone and everyone can reverse engineer anything you do in a relatively short period of time. How long did it take Android to reverse engineer the iPhone? If one of the most brilliant people who ever lived, Steve Jobs, cannot protect his intellectual property, why would us lesser folk think we could do better. Maybe it’s wiser to give it away to those who can benefit from it. In Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe Jackson says, “If you build it, they will come.” In today’s vernacular, that may read, “If you give it away, they will come.” It’s the new way of getting customers.

Connection
Giving away things that are valuable, with no expectation of getting anything back, will build a great deal of trust and goodwill. When people feel that they are being cared for, unconditionally, they cannot help but trust, and care back. It is the best way to develop community – give, without expectation of getting. If you want people to connect with you in a meaningful way, first connect with them in a meaningful way. Fill a void, solve a problem, inspire, lead, whatever it takes to make the connection. Meaningful, and lasting connections are the new currency in today’s global marketplace. Connections result in influence. Influence can not only build your business, but it can change the world.

The next letter in Seth Godin’s Grownup ABC book is “F”. “F” is for Feedback. “Feedback is either a crutch or a weapon. Use feedback to make your work smaller, safer, more likely to please everyone (and fail in the long run). Or use it as a lever, to further push you to embrace what you fear (and what you’re capable of).”

That certainly sounds like a contrarian perspective on feedback. The good news is, that we still have the power to use feedback in whatever way we desire. Seth sets up our usage of failure as a binary choice between two extremes. On the one hand, you can embrace feedback to make your work more pleasing to everyone, and fail in the long run; or on the other hand, you can use feedback to further push you to embrace what you fear, and push you further towards what you are capable of, I assume, also in the long run.

One logical conclusion that results from the latter extreme is that one needs to be pushed to maximize his/her potential – what they are capable of. It is also noteworthy that the origins of this push are normally external; however, that external push can be internalized at some point and leveraged to drive you into a fuller expression of the masterpiece you were created to be.

I would certainly agree that you need to be pushed to become the best that you can be, and those pushes normally come from outside of us. They can come from a positive slant – vision, passion, following a dynamic leader, etc., or from a more negative slant – a holy discontent with a particular form of injustice, or negative experiences at the hands of someone who has been an influencer in your life at some point, an abusive parent, spouse, friend, etc. When, how, and to what extent we internalize these external pushes decide whether they make us better, or worse, in the long run.

Seth also is saying, that making your work smaller, safer, and more likely to please will result in long term failure. Long-term failure implies that it may initially seem like things are going better as a result of your efforts to make things easier, safer, and more likely to please. This immediate, positive, feedback reinforces the long-term negative behavior until you are so far down the path that there is no turning back, and failure is all but inevitable.

Most Christians spend a great deal of their praying words on safety, removing or avoiding difficulties, etc. If Seth is right, maybe we really should be praying for the opposite. Perhaps this helps explain where the writer of the book of James, in the Bible, is referring to when he says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” – James 1:2-4 (NLT). That is certainly not one of my favorite verses, but it has rung true in my life over the years. I have learned, and grown, much more from failures and trials than I have from successes and things being easy.

I am still not sure I understand what any of that has to do with the concept of feedback in general. Maybe it is about engaging in activities and endeavors that put you in a position to receive feedback that will be strong, deliberate, and clearly for or against what you are doing. Maybe Seth is referring to feedback being results, or lack of results of your efforts. Are you trying to make your little part of the world a better place? If it’s not much better after you engage it, maybe that is the kind of feedback we are talking about.

Maybe Seth is referring to being in the ongoing habit of soliciting and expecting feedback related to the things we are not only saying – but doing. Maybe it’s looking for and internalizing constructive negative feedback rather than settling for the patronizing, brain-dead platitudes that some people lavish on us in an effort to control us, or make themselves look considerate and spiritual. Maybe it’s all of them; could be none of them. The mind of Seth is a deep and oft confusing place to temporarily dwell. This particular letter is leaving some of my questions unanswered – at least for the moment.

The next letter in Seth Godin’s Grownup ABC book is “E”. “E” is for Effort. “Effort isn’t the point, impact is…If you solve my problem in 3 seconds (I’m good)…If you move 10,000 pounds of granite, but the result doesn’t connect with me, I’m sorry…”

I would like to explore to angles around this dialogue, that appear to be in opposition. The first is something I have shared with my kids and people I have mentored for decades now. That is – hard work always pays off. If you want something bad enough, you need to work hard for it. In light of Seth Godin’s discussion on the topic of effort, it appears that he is saying the opposite. Seth is saying, I don’t care how hard you work to make a meaningful connection with me, so long as you make one. If you work your butt off but don’t connect with me in a meaningful way, I don’t appreciate the effort.

It would be easy for the casual observer to read this, and use it as an excuse for not working hard. “You see Bob, you don’t really have to work hard man, you just need to connect. Take a hit on this joint and pass it back to me when you’re done.” I don’t resonate with the “pass the joint” work ethic at all. Call it old school but when I look at successful people, be it professional athletes, musicians, successful entrepreneurs, mega pastors, etc., I see people who worked pretty hard to get to where they are. Meaningful work is a gift from God and the opportunity to work hard and see the fruit of your labor is a great blessing.

On the flip-side you have what Seth Godin is saying. Just because you are working hard, does not mean you will receive a reward equal to your effort. I can resonate with that too in some ways. I know people who feel that, just because they have worked somewhere for 20 years that they deserve to make a lot of money. Experience is meaningless if that experience can’t be leveraged to produce impact – something valuable. If you are good at shoeing horses, who cares? There is no demand for shoeing horses these days.

I guess where I am landing on all of this is that effort is best when it is expended on something that has worth and value inherent in the outcome. That worth and value needs to be seen from the perspective of the beneficiary of that outcome, not the one investing the effort necessarily. It’s great if you value things that you are putting effort into; but, if no one else values them, they are not worth anything.

During the housing boom many years ago now, me and my brother opened a real estate brokerage so we could flip homes and earn the commissions on any real estate transactions we engaged in. I ended up getting a great deal of real life experience with one of the greatest answers I have ever heard or given. “How much is my house worth?” Answer, “Exactly what someone is willing to pay for it.” It really doesn’t matter how much you like pink, or those little angel statues that pee into a fountain; if no one else likes it, your house is not going to sell for much.

Similarly with effort. We need to expend effort into activities that generate value and meaning for others. Perhaps this is the real angle that Seth Godin had in mind when he wrote about effort. In our efforts, we should strive to connect with others and create value and meaning in that connection. That is impact. That is one of the best ways to make sure we get a high ROE, or return on effort.

D is for Dance from Seth Godin’s grownup ABC book. “Dance with the resistance!” is one of the key highlights for me. “Dance with the resistance” to me means to be open to ideas that are seemingly conflicting or contrary with your own thoughts and convictions. Many years ago, I primarily saw “issues”, “black & white”, “right way and wrong way”. Lately I have been seeing more of “people”, “situations”, and “feelings.” I also am more aware than ever of my capacity to be wrong, and that challenging my beliefs make the proper convictions stronger, and quickly eliminates the areas where I may have been wrong, or not seen things in the proper perspective.

There are many reasons for my surprising shift in attitude over the years. I have been in management and project management for decades now, primarily in the technical field, but also outside of that sphere. I am continually amazed at how difficult it is to achieve shared understanding between people on the same team; and even more surprising, how difficult it is to realize that you do not have shared understanding when you think you do. A conversation may go like this. “Hey Bill, we had to make the decision to stop doing ‘B’ and go with ‘A’. Please direct your team accordingly. We all need to stop working on ‘B’ and start working on ‘A’ immediately.” Bill would repeat it back, “OK, so, stop working on ‘B’ and start working on ‘A’, immediately.” I would confirm, and even send a follow up email to reiterate the main points. Three days later I would pass Bill in the hall. “Hey Bill, how is ‘A’ coming along” To which, Bill would laugh out loud and reply, “Hey Bob, that’s funny! You mean how is ‘B’ coming along! Remember the conversation we had a few days ago?”

Things would of course escalate from there. I would produce the email I sent and print it out. Bill would argue vehemently that I was mistaken. That my email clearly said to keep doing ‘B’. The rare instances where I would actually have the care and patience required to really dig in and figure out what was going on, it would ALWAYS end up being related to a super huge difference in perspective and experience. While we were saying the same things, each of our brains were interpreting what was said completely differently based on our current attitudes, beliefs, convictions, and context. Before I can have a meaningful dialogue with anyone and hope to come to a point of mutual understanding of a particular issue or topic, I need to walk a mile in their shoes. I have to understand where they are coming from, what their context is, what their perspective is.

I eventually started to apply this in other areas of my life. There were many people in my life whom I really respected and liked, that had some radically opposing views from me on various topics from poverty to gay marriage to abortion to war, capital punishment, you name it. I would think to myself, and sometimes say out loud, how could you possibly believe that, or think that? Don’t you have any common sense? Well, as it turns out, when I started taking the time to try to understand WHY individuals believe what they believe, it would begin to make more sense. When I understood their context, their perspective, their history, their passions, their hurts, their dreams, it was much easier to understand their positions on various issues.

Understanding someone’s perspective doesn’t always mean I completely change my opinions on a particular issue, but it does mean that I can respect, and understand why someone may think the opposite. I can believe that they are still a good person, and, may very well be a better person than me, even though they hold different beliefs. My new perspective has had the unintended consequence of making me a much better person. I am more clearly able to articulate the things I do stand for. I am able to be heard and understood more thoroughly by people I may disagree with. I now, at a minimum, know that I SHOULD be trying to get to the person, the experience before I get into the issue. I am not always able to execute on that, but at least I am now willing to admit that I was wrong, ask for grace, and strive for understanding on a peer to peer, respect basis.

You cannot achieve mutual understanding with someone through a passing conversation. You have to experience a much deeper connection over a longer period of time. You have to “dance” with them as it were. Look into their eyes, understand how they feel, where they are coming from. Not in a romantic, creepy sense but in an abstract sense. The feminine side of me that has been developing over the last 20+ years of marriage and raising several daughters can really appreciate the dancing metaphor when it comes to mutual understanding. The male side, not so much…

“C” – Commitment. From the Seth Godin ABC book for grownups.” “Commitment is the only thing that gets you through the chasm….Commitment is risky because if you fail, it’s on you.” Those are two very important characteristics of commitment. Commitment is necessary to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. We all know this, but there are still so many instances when we refuse to make commitments. Some are more commitment-phobic than others. I don’t necessarily mean guys afraid to commit to a girl in marriage, I mean more from a getting things done perspective. Moving from here to there. Becoming a better person. Making a better world.

Jim Collins, is an internationally recognized and respected business guru. In one of his many books, “Good to Great”, he researched what characteristics were present in companies that were able to make the transition from good to great. His detailed research led him to identify two characteristics, that are always present in what he calls “Level 5 Leaders” – those who are capability of leading an organization from good to great.

The two characteristics are: deep, person humility and intense, professional will. Intense professional will is all about commitments. The cause, the vision, is so compelling, that one must commit to it. The level of commitment demanded is intense, all-out, nothing left on the field. I believe that one of the biggest factors preventing most people from making those fierce commitments on a regular basis is this – if you fail, it’s on you.

I have met many people, professionally and socially, who are more concerned with “not failing” then they are with taking a risk on something great. Why is the desire to not fail, so much greater than the desire to success in these cases? Well, some people say it’s fear. That might be a small part of it, but I believe there is much more to it than that.

I believe the largest contributing factor to lack of commitment in anything is that the passion for self – self-interest and self-preservation, is greater than the passion for the cause / vision to be committed to. I believe here are two main reasons for this –  Either the person is too self-focused, or, does not have a compelling enough cause / vision to risk failure for.

When we find ourselves falling into the first category, we need to get over ourselves. We should never be too important to be wrong or too important to fail. We should never allow our desire to save-face rob us of opportunities to change our world. When we find ourselves without a compelling enough cause, there are two possibilities.

One, we have failed to catch the vision for the cause. It’s really there, we just haven’t dug deep enough, or allowed ourselves to relate to the outcome, or lack of outcome at a personal enough level. Two, we just need a better cause, and more motivating vision. Exciting visions are always about benefiting others rather than ourselves. We need to surround ourselves with “others-focused” peers, mentors and leaders. We need to join forces with those making a difference in the world, take up their cause, and extend it, grow it.

If you find yourself not making commitments, check yourself, check your vision, and find hangout who are fiercely committed to compelling causes!

The second letter in Seth Godin’s ABC book. The letter “B” is for “birl.” “Birl that log. Find your balance by losing it.”  Birl is defined – To cause a floating log to spin rapidly by rotating with the feet. My in-laws have been vacationing in Hayward for some 40 years now and I have accompanied them on numerous trips. One of Hayward’s claims to fame is the World Lumberjack Championship. Log-rolling or birling is big up there. One of the camp grounds we stayed at had a log in the shallow part of a lake that you could try to birl on. This was not a professional birling log, this was an old log, covered with algae – super slippery to even try to sit on it, forget about spin it with your feet. I was never able to stay up on it for more than a few seconds. Maybe one day I can take some birling lessons up in Hayward. That would make a good Facebook video post.

Seth Godin admonishes us to find our balance by losing it. That implies, intentionally putting yourself in situations that put you out of balance – read uncomfortable, difficult, risky situations. How many of us intentionally do that occasionally? On a regular basis? How about those of us over 30? Over 40? Over 50?

I have been leading kids/students in a church context for 20+ years now and have been around a bunch of kids/students for longer than that. I give the kids/students opportunities to pray out loud as often as I can. You can learn not only about the faith of the kids, but of the faith of their parents by hearing what the kids pray about. 98% of the time the main focus of the prayer is centered around being safe. “Help us to be safe.” “Help my mom and dad to be safe.” “Help everyone in the world to be safe.” “Keep us safe on our vacation.” “Keep us safe at school.” “Help mom and dad to be safe at work tomorrow.”

Where do they that get that from? Parents? Church/Sunday School leaders? Other people they hear praying? We have an obsession with being safe, especially here in America, especially where I live in the collar-county burbs. Gary Haugen from IJM had this to say about followers of Jesus and being safe, “Jesus did not come to make us safe. He came to make us brave.” How often do we pray to be brave instead of safe? How often do our kids, our spouse, our close family and friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances see us put ourselves in situations requiring bravery on a regular basis? Intentionally place ourselves in difficult, uncomfortable situations, for the primary benefit of others rather than ourselves?

What are we willing to risk for our faith? For the sake of others? I have friends that have intentionally re-located to dangerous urban areas for the sake of spreading God’s love; friends who have intentionally re-located to hostile parts of the world to spread God’s love; friends starting neighborhood groups, starting churches in bars, coffee houses, their homes; friends who quit a good job to start a church, or to start a business that affords them the opportunity to influence those in need of jobs, training, hope; friends who have come from other countries to re-locate here, with nothing but a few suitcases, for the sake of sharing their experiences of following Jesus with us here in America.

We as collar county, suburban followers of Jesus need to step up our game, and put ourselves in difficult situations for a greater good on a far more frequent basis. Jesus wants us to take risks – not to be reckless – but to take risks. Sometimes the risks seem small, like reaching out to introduce yourself to someone; sometimes they are mundane and routine, like a single mom getting out of bed at 4AM every day and working two jobs to support her children; sometimes they are grandiose and sometimes they are humble – and no one else will know except you and God. Jesus came to make us brave, not safe. Let’s live our lives so people who know us well can honestly say that we live our lives bravely, and put ourselves in situations regularly where we will risk losing our balance.

I am a big fan of Seth Godin. He wrote a book last year that is an A-B-C, Dr Seuss-like book for grownups. One of my office mates bought the book and I am reading it. “V is for Vulnerable – Life Outside the Comfort Zone.” Seth Godin makes this commentary on the inside cover, “I’m trying to get under your skin. I’m trying to get you to stop being a spectator and a pawn in the industrial system that raised us, and maybe, just maybe, to stand up and do something that scares you. I want you to do what you were meant to do…”

I thought I would comment on Chapter 1.

A is for Anxiety – Seth says that anxiety is “experiencing failure in advance.” That’s a pretty good definition. He goes on to say that anxiety can often be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you imagine yourself failing in the future, it is more likely that you will actually fail when the time comes. Many people that I have known over the years have experienced anxiety at a level that I would consider to be unhealthy in the Seth Godin view of the word.

I personally have battled a certain type of anxiety over the years. I have had a stuttering problem since I was about 7 years old. In casual conversation it can be barely noticeable. In circumstances where I need to introduce myself, either one-on-one or in a group, or have a first-time conversation with someone or a group, it can be very severe and in some case debilitating.

I experienced a great deal of teasing related to my stuttering during my school age years. One of my teachers in high school would never address me directly. He would ask the girl behind me to translate my stuttering since, according to him, she was the only one in the class who could understand what I was saying. In my medical school interview, the dean asked me why I thought I could become a doctor if my stutter was so bad; and when I did get into medical school and  was trying to establish myself in the many different first term group contexts, I eventually started writing out what I wanted to say in my notebook because the stutter was so bad. Stuttering was one of the main reasons I quit medical school.

Of course, the professional business world offers little relief from stuttering anxiety. I have had prospective employers ask for my transcripts because they didn’t believe I had an engineering degree. I have had receptionists laugh and ask me if I have forgotten my name when trying to introduce myself. At times I have made bosses and peers uncomfortable when introducing myself in customer-facing situations.

In my first professional job, I occupied an office of a big exec who was out for 6 months with a heart attack. His phone rang several times an hour and every time it rang I ran out of the office and pretended like I had to go to the bathroom because I couldn’t answer the phone without severely stuttering – great way to make an impression as a new hire. On my first day, I rode in on a Metra train. The guy sitting next to me on the train asked where I worked. I said I worked at “AT&T” because it was easier to say without stuttering than the actual company I worked for, “Sargent and Lundy.” As luck would have it, he worked at AT&T “too” and started diving into deeper questioning. I eventually had to explain to him that I lied because I have a stuttering problem.

These are a few examples of some of the side-effects of going through life with a stuttering problem. Any time I foresee a future situation where I might meet someone, have to engage in small talk, “go around the room and tell everyone a little about myself,” I can become filled with anxiety. I have been to speech therapists, I have been hypnotised, kicked by mules, taken experimental drugs, tried changing the pitch of my voice, tried singing (those who have played rockband with me can guess how long that lasted), tried carrying a small tape player in my pocket that says “Hi! I’m Bob Clinkert.” and everything across the “cure-stuttering” spectrum. I have had pastors lay their hands on me and pray, I have had exorcisms, I’ve fasted, prayed, begged, etc., all to no avail. Throughout the years, I have consistently heard God tell me to “man-up” and deal with it because it ain’t going away.

I can recall the first turning point in my battle with stuttering anxiety. About 15 year ago, I really wanted to start a men’s group with a group of guys who all wanted to help each other grow in their faith. I was asking around, and one of my pastors said he was talking to a bunch of guys who wanted to get into a group, and he gave me one of their phone numbers and asked me to call them. I was all smiles on the outside, but inside I was dreading that introductory phone call. One of the little tricks I learned along the way was to make all of my phone calls at 5AM and leave message on people’s office phones. If I knew no one would answer, I had no anxiety and had no problems talking to the voicemail. People would say, “Wow, you start work early!” So, next day, I rang this guy up at 5AM. Sure enough, he was an early riser and he picked up the phone on the first ring. “Hello, this is Jim.”

Immediately my pulse went up to about 180 and I could feel my throat lock up. I desperately wanted to hang up, but, I didn’t know if he had caller-id or not, and I didn’t want to completely ruin my chances of ever starting this group. In what must have been only a few seconds, but felt like a few minutes, I had this conversation with God. “God, I know you aren’t going to make this a stuttering free conversation, so, I ask you to guide Jim here and his buddies to join the group, regardless of how bad I screw up this call.” Sure enough, it took me about 30 seconds to say my name in an intelligible way. I can’t believe Jim didn’t hang up. I took the next 10 minutes or more to stutter my way through an invitation to my group. He said him and his buddies would love to check it out and he asked for my address and directions to my house (this is pre GPS). Another 10 minutes of tedious, unintelligible bursts of stammering later, and Jim had what he thought he needed.

The following Tuesday, it’s 6:45 and I am waiting for Jim and his buddies to show up. Most people show up early to the first group meeting. The official start time was 7:00. At 7:15, he was still a no show, then 7:30, 7:45, 8:00. I figured that I sounded like such a weirdo on the phone, that they must have decided against coming and didn’t have the heart to tell me. Sure enough, 8:15, doorbell rings. It’s Jim and his three buddies. “Sorry we’re late, but we ended up getting horribly lost. I must have gotten some of the street names wrong when you gave me directions over the phone.” When I reviewed the directions he wrote down I burst out laughing because his translation of the directions I tried to give over the phone through my stuttering was so completely wrong. I honestly have no idea how he ever found the house, or, why he decided to keep driving for more than an hour.

In the months that followed, I build some pretty good friendships with those guys and that group ended up having a significant impact on my spiritual growth and my parenting – most of the guys had teenagers at a time when my kids were very young so I paid close attention to their experiences. It seems as if God showed up, not to heal my stuttering, but to work through it. That experience was the beginning of what would develop into a familiar pattern. I would be confronted with situations on a regular basis where I had a choice between going into a situation knowing that I would stutter, or bail out of the situation. Every time I chose to fight through the anxiety and put myself out there as best I could, God would always seem to show up and develop the relationships in spite of those awkward first conversations.

Over the years I have grown in my engineering career from an individual contributor, to a manager, to a department head over several managers in several different locations in the US and internationally. Since then I have been blessed to be invited into the ownership of a small technology company started by two good friends and we have been on quite a journey of growth, faith, and business as mission over the last decade. The only reason I highlight these aspects of my journey is that they could not have happened, if it were not for the faith, belief and desire that what was on the other side of the difficulties is worth the risk. As I look back at the last 20+ years, my journey has consisted of a long series of opportunities to take a small leap of faith, risk failure and embarrassment in the pursuit of a greater win, and have God get me over the hump to the next small leap of faith.

Anxiety, or “experiencing failure in advance,” has given way to experiencing fear in taking the risk of a small failure for a potentially much bigger win. When I concentrate on the bigger win instead of the smaller risk, and when I concentrate on what a big God can do through small leaps of faith, I move from experiencing failure in advance to expecting success in advance, despite my shortcomings. That doesn’t mean the fear or the risk are removed. I was just at a parenting group a couple days ago and I was asked to introduce myself and almost had a panic attack. I sounded like a potato head, but I pushed on and made my end-goal that everyone would feel welcome and special in my group. That’s worth a little embarrassment on the front-end.

So, start “experiencing success in advance” rather than “failure in advance.” The cure for anxiety is faith, perseverance and having goals worth believing in and worth taking the risk on.