Remember how last week I wrote about what I was going to challenge myself to this year?
As a refresher, the two things I wanted to work on in January were doing scary things and to stop snacking after dinner, but this post is all about the scary stuff.
For me, doing scary things means/meant calling around to see about having my artwork in some local places and putting my posts up on Facebook where people will see them and know I exist.
Now, those things might not seem scary to you, especially the social media thing, If you’re a millennial. I technically only missed the cut off for that title by about six weeks, but the “putting it all out there on the internet” is frightening. Actually, I have no problem writing about personal stuff and publishing it in places where literally thousands of strangers may read it (Huffington Post and Tiny Buddha, for starters), but for some reason telling people I know in real life is really hard for me.
What if someone I know thinks I’m weird? Or thinks I’m wrong (gasp)? Or that my art sucks? Or, perhaps worst of all, what if no one “likes” my stuff?? What if it gets completely ignored and it’s confirmed to me that I’m boring and no one cares what I have to say? It scares me and I always talk myself out of telling people that I have a website or that I’m writing or that I’m creating. My goal for this month is to publish all of my posts to both my public and personal Facebook pages. Yikes.
Now let’s talk about the scary thing I ACTUALLY DID (!)
There’s a coffee house in town that has changing displays of artwork by locals on its walls (in fact, I bought a tree painting from there back in 2009 (are you shocked I bought a painting of a tree? Ha!)), and my goal was to call and ask how I could get my stuff in there.
The thought of making this phone call terrified me. In fact, first I emailed them so I could avoid being on the phone. When I got no reply after a few days, I knew I had to suck it up and pick up the phone.
I first tried on Friday, the 30th, and even rehearsed what I was going to say at least five times before I even dialed the number.
Rehearsed it. Like I was calling a boy on the phone for the first time.
No one answered, so I patted myself on the back and said I could put it off to the start of the new year.
But, as always, I find ways to avoid doing things that scare me. Obviously I wasn’t going to call on January 1st, because that’s a holiday (like that should matter). On Monday the 2nd, I figured I wouldn’t call because my daughter was sick. Why would that stop me? Well, it was yet another excuse.
Luckily, some part of me suddenly got brave, and about half an hour before the place was closing, I got it in my head that I HAD to call. My husband was hanging out with my daughter, so there was no reason not to do it, so I went to the number in my phone and pressed “call.”
And guess what? I didn’t even rehearse what I was going to say! When the woman picked up, I told her I had a question, asked about how to get my art up there, and it turns out their process is THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD.
Basically, if you ask to have your art up there, as long as it doesn’t have nudity in it, you can hang it. The end. I have to hang it myself. That’s it. Those are the only limitations. The next opening she had was for the months of June and July, which is actually wonderful, because this little mountain town of mine will be hopping that time of year, and I’ll have more time to get stuff ready.
I felt fantastic when I got off the phone. I haven’t felt that genuinely happy and fulfilled in quite a while, and I thought, “I should call another place!” Which of course I did not. Because I’m a chicken. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this challenge at all.
I’m thrilled that I did it, and beyond thrilled that the process was so easy and I got such a good response my first time out. However, I do want to push myself to call one other place to find out the same info, that way I’ll feel like I’m really getting out there and doing things that scare me.
I have to say, the fear sucks, but the doing it actually felt really, really good. I proved to myself that I can do things that scare me, so now I just have to keep going.
I really, truly want to know: What scares you? What thing are you avoiding doing because it freaks you out?