Just press call

I’ve experienced an incredible amount of success over the past few months traveling through four countries by deliberately not thinking about it. I remember my high school soccer coach telling us how to take penalty kicks (even though it’s just you and the goalie on a stopped play, your nerves, your brain, your expectations can throw you off and you’ll kick the ball well beyond the range of the goal, or right into the hands of the goalie.)

He said, “Just don’t think about. Kick the ball.”

His reasoning was simple, “You’ve been playing for the past 10 years, you know how to score a goal. You know how to take a penalty kick: low, on the ground just-press-callside pocket. If you over think it, you’ll miss.”

The majority of my work is going off of leads that people give me about who I should talk to, or visit. Very often they have a vague idea, and a phone number, and maybe (sometimes) a name. Maybe a first name, maybe a school name, sometimes it’s just a guess.

Sometimes I just stare at that number. Look at it and think about who’s going to answer it, are they going to understand me? Are they going to want to listen to me? Am we going to be able to communicate? Are they going to want to talk for 10 min and burn up my phone credit?

When people asked me how I visited almost 70 schools and met with 12 different organizations over the past couple of months I tell them, “I just pressed call.”

Before I can think of anything that may prevent me from making the call, any undesired outcome or consequence that may creep into view, I just press that big green button.

My mind shifts. I think about what I need to say what someone answers and then they pick up.

Meetings, visits, lunches, coffees, plans, outings, ideas, it can only happen if you call.

Just press call.

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