Have you ever thought about what you do when you think something is going to cause you pain? It’s an instinctive response…you flinch. You move close your eyes and move away from the source of perceived pain.
Notice that I used the word “perceived.” In many cases the things we think will cause us pain actually won’t.
Some people train themselves not to flinch. Consider boxers, for example, who get into the ring over and over again and allow themselves to be punched. You rarely see them flinch when they see the other fighter’s glove coming at them.
What about you? How often do you flinch? Do you let that response stop you from doing things in your life? Do you back off or jump out of the ring before you even know if you will get hit in the face? Would you like to learn how to stop flinching and get back in the ring?
If so, it’s imperative to conquer your fears so you can live your life fully and accomplish your goals. Julien Smith wrote and then published a free ebook called The Flinch which is all about moving through fear—or overcoming fear. The Flinch also is about asking people to change, compelling them to change, giving them the tools to change. I highly recommend reading this book if you want to give up what Julien calls your “bad habits.” In fact, he says this book is “about our pathological lack of courage as individuals…really it’s a book about how to break out of bad habits and break into good ones.”
Julien is a New York Times bestselling author of two books, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust andThe Flinch. In The Flinch, Julien talks about our bad habit of “flinching” when we expect to experience pain and how to train ourselves to consciously build the strength to get past our fear–to stop flinching. How do you do that? He suggests doing things like getting in a cold shower daily and stuttering on purpose when you speak to store clerks. In general, do things that bring on a “flinch” response but that really have no negative outcome—things you consciously realize you have no logical reason to fear (except possible embarrassment or a moment of discomfort). In other words, consciously create new habits by becoming aware of your habit of flinching.
You can read an interview I conducted with him after connecting with him at BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Los Angeles about his book here. You can read additional parts of the interview here and here, which have to do with success writing and blogging.
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