What are you afraid of?

You've been invited to a social event by a good friend of yours. You're inside by the lobby where you're suppose to meet her, but she's nowhere in sight.  A couple of minutes later you get a text from her saying she got held up by a couple of phone calls and is running late by about forty minutes. Now you were very much interested in attending this event but not alone. You thought you would be able to go inside mingle with your friend for a bit and then at some point chat it up with some of the other attendees, but now she's running late. What do you do?

A. Stay outside in the lobby area and loiter around for 40 minutes (at least) and wait for your friend to arrive.

B. Go inside, be a wall flower and people watch.

C. Head over to the bar grab a drink and hang around there until your friend comes.

D. Tell your friend that you are going home and you'll see her on the next go around.

E. Go inside and start mingling with the other attendees.

How many picked E?

If you are a social butterfly then the choice was a no-brainer, but many people are not and a scenario such as this strikes fear in the heart of many. Why?  Walking into a room full of strangers is unsettling.  It means trying something new, leaving your comfort zone and opening yourself up to new experiences.  And as crazy as it sounds most people would strongly prefer NOT to do any of these three things.

Fear, fear, fear. . .

This four letter word is probably single-handedly why ideas never happen, businesses stagnate, and why brands don't grow.

As the above scenario lays out, when something happens which wasn't planned, (the friend not showing up) often, instead of adapting to the situation the typical reaction is to shrink away from the new challenge (going into a room full strangers by yourself) and simply go back to what you were doing in the first place (chillin' at home watching TV and/or hanging out with friends you already know).

At the end of the day the more resistance you put up to placing yourself in new situations or scenarios the more likely your ability to adapt to new circumstances becomes that much harder.  And In today's market where old ideas are deteriorating daily and new ones are emerging anyone's decision to not open themselves to new experiences will ultimately put them between a rock and a hard place.  Somewhere most people would prefer not to be.

So what are you afraid of when you don't want to try something new?  That is only a question that you can answer for yourself.

Thriving in today's environment means trying something you've never done before. Squelching that little voice inside of you that says "don't do it, we'll try this another day." Getting past this is difficult but the rewards are potentially astronomical. So conquering your fear could mean conquering the world. . .

Hmmm, now that's an idea to think about.