Running From Dogs With No Teeth

“Beware Of No One More Than Yourself, We Carry Our Worst Enemies Within Us.” Charles Spurgeon

There's this story of a boy who was terrified of a dog he would encounter each day on his way home from school. As the boy would get close the dog would start growling and barking and chase him down the block.

After several days the boy became tired of being chased. He thought to himself, I`m going to carry a brick or a stick or something and give that dog something to really bark about. The next day the boy approached the house where the dog was, picked up a stick and carried it with him. As he drew near the dog started growling and barking as it was running towards the boy. This time the boy stood firm and held his ground. As the dog got closer the boy noticed that the dog did not have any teeth. No teeth!

With this new discovery, the boy threw down the stick and told the dog to get lost, thinking of all the time he wasted running away for nothing.

A humorous tale, and a humorous thought too…getting chased up and down by an empty-mouthed hound!

Might sound like a piece of fiction dreamed up by a moth-eaten someone on a windy Sunday evening, but there`s a fair bit of uncomfortable reality in it, nonetheless. How many times have we encountered dogs with no teeth on our individual journeys to make more of ourselves? As we chase down our dreams and our aspirations, only to come to a complete standstill, or even running away as we get to this `dog`?

These hounds are many and come in various shapes and sizes. Our own feelings of inadequacy. Persistent doubts about who we are and the value we represent. The unfounded fears of the unknown we entertain that prevent us from taking any action. Our lack of faith in our own abilities. Weighing ourselves up against others and finding ourselves to be a few `kilograms` short. Lack of ambition or becoming too settled in one or other comfort zone. The list is long…

Most time we scare ourselves into oblivion with various doom-and-gloom scenarios, expecting the worst possible outcome for any one engagement or activity. Want to call a prospective customer? We picture the extent to which the person will give us a tongue-lashing such that we never pick up the phone. We get invited to give a presentation to the Big Chiefs and we see ourselves stammering and fumbling along as we are standing there in front of them. We finally score that long-awaited Job Interview and we picture ourselves becoming blabbering incoherents, failing to answer the simplest of questions.  

I`m sure any of these scenarios might have played out for any one of us at some point. Be it in Sales, Management, or Job Hunting, there was a time when we were not too keen on what we had to do. That dog was happily sitting there growling away – sans gnashers and all! What`s so fascinating about all of this is that these are all just mind-eye images, `dogs with no teeth` we`ve unnecessarily created for ourselves.

Like it or not, that Call must be made, that Presentation must be delivered, and that Interview duly attended to. What is to be done then to shake off that feeling of doom and disaster? Simple…confront that dog and take that first step on the long-delayed journey of self-realization. Break out of those self-defeating thoughts and go chase that dream. Because we are the cause of our own performance anxiety, we are equally the source of its solution: Trust In Yourself, Have Faith In Your Abilities.

Make the call and you`ll find that the customer was just waiting for you to make contact. Prepare and deliver that presentation, and who knows, a promotion might just be in the offing. Get yourself prepped for that interview and you may very well be the very candidate they were looking for to fill the position. End of the day is the sum of a billion zeroes still just zero, not a fraction more. No positive action taken, no positive reaction gained in return.

By standing your ground and staring that dog down, you`ll probably find yourself seeing opportunities that weren't there before. Doors will open because the only key you ever needed was simply to face your self-created fears head-on.

Time waits for no one, confront that edentulous canine and become a person of action. Let that harmless dog look for other, less determined people to harass!