#816 threshold

Last week, a local news story unexpectedly went viral, so the requests for interviews came in.  The best person to speak on the topic was someone who is normally not a spokesperson.  While she had the most knowledge of the details, she had little experience in being questioned on the radio; thus, she was understandably nervous.

As she was being prepped for a media interview, her boss stopped in with words of encouragement.  "You're building your threshold," he said.  "The next time you have to do this, your threshold will be higher."

What great words of advice.  People often avoid doing challenging things because they are not experts at them, but it is precisely through doing the difficult work that our threshold increases and our proficiency in doing the hard task is improved.  The skills she learns in doing the media interview will translate into making it easier to have difficult conversations in other venues.  The confidence she gains by succeeding at something she did not think she could do well will carry over and buoy her in different settings.  

Instead of listening to that inner voice that urges us to avoid the difficult tasks, embrace them as a threshold-building workout.  Your strength will amaze you.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

Thanks to Mike and Stan!