Why aren’t you pressing Send?

Welcome to all of you who have joined in the past few weeks. I write weekly on insights and tactics around building an incredible network of clients, collaborators, and community.

Here’s a really common scenario. Tell me if this hits home.

I regularly engage in coaching conversations, whether 1:1 or in our GoodSphere classes, where we identify one of the simple habits someone can adopt is regularly engaging with their greater sphere of influence (fancy word for network, relationships, etc).

As basic as a text message - in fact, a text message is preferred, as I’ll share in future weeks.

We try and do it together. Find an old contact in their phone. Type out a message… then I see panic take over. You’d think I was asking them to saw off their arm, and a few I’ve spoken to would prefer that.

I’ve seen this enough times that at some point, I stopped forcing it through (I have a trick for that too), but instead ask them to name their emotions. Name their fears. Think of all the reasons why NOT press Send.

It’s helpful to raise awareness. As I’ve learned, we’re on autopilot so much of the time, we don’t know why we do or don’t do something. But bringing it to the forefront of our attention allows us to understand, process, and release it.

Awareness yields transformation.

Taking Action

Go ahead. Try it. Open up your phone’s address book. Scroll randomly until you find someone who causes you to pause and think “oh yeah, it’s been a while.”

Type out a simple text message. I’ll give the script I use another time, but for now, use what comes to mind for you.

Instead of pressing send, ask yourself… what’s stopping me?

Awesome, now you know.

Further Reading

Fatherly has a post on “How to be more likeable.” While the topic might invoke an eye-roll (I get it!) - it’s worth at least a quick scan and asking yourself some follow-up questions.