Cold calling makes me feel better

Welcome to Week 28 of my adventure of following the Start Up Version of the Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a virtual marketing assistant, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and I include a weekly recap at the end.

Sometimes I struggle with my mood.  Though I’m generally a cheerful person, I can have a hard time revving up.  At my corporate job, the bubbly co-workers who would pop into my office at 8:30 a.m. for a quick chat would usually do the trick.  But now that I’m on my own, it can be harder to find my jovial self without the positive influence of others. 

And sometimes, when I can’t attain that positive mood, I can be grumpy.  Like, all day long grumpy.   If 11 a.m. comes around and I’m still not feeling good, no amount of coffee can do the trick.  Papa Smurf could do flips on my desk and I'd still be a lost cause.  Worse than the grumpiness is the lack of motivation, sadness, or negativity in general that I can fall victim to.  I start thinking things like: What’s the point?  I’m not cut out for this… I’m never going to make any money, etc...  I can dwell in the doubt.

I’m not ashamed of this anymore – it’s just the way I can be sometimes.  Usually only a run (if I can get up the motivation) will snap me out of it.

Of course, dwelling in the doubt isn’t going to get me anywhere.  I know this.  And I’m becoming more and more aware of how to overcome it:  By having a positive voice that’s stronger than your grumpy sad voice.  I do believe feelings are important, but it’s also important to realize when your feelings aren’t accomplishing anything besides making you feel worse! 

I’m realizing that for me, action is the anti-grumpy.  If I can overpower my negative feelings for long enough to start acting – I have a really good chance of reversing that bad mood/lack of motivation/doubtful voice in my head.

And the action that's working best right now is cold calling.

Yes, cold calling makes me feel better... (I realize that is somewhat insane.  I would have NEVER imagined I’d utter those words.)  But it does.  It makes me feel less isolated and more in charge.  I'm interacting with people, which is much needed in the workday, and I'm giving my self-employment a fighting chance, using a very real and very effective tactic to find new clients.  Much like a run, it jolts my system and almost immediately creates cheer. 

PS.  Today’s calls went really well, as usual.  I have 3 more good leads in my pipeline.  And while today started as a serious struggle, I’m pleased to say I’m feeling so much better now.

Do you find the isolation problematic at times?  How do you deal with it? Any suggestions on where to find smiles or laughs first thing in the morning?  (There’s nothing like a good laugh to start my day off right.)  

Week 28 Recap:  I'm trucking along this week.  I'm making progress on my new website for web copywriting, but I still have lots more to do.  I'm getting there I suppose.  It's always nice to think about how much further along I am in my efforts now than if I hadn't followed this plan.  I'm also networking on Biznik regularly, checking web stats (which are way up), loosely crafting ideas for a newsletter, and of course picking up the phone for those intro calls.

Comments

[TurtleBlueBird]

Beautiful! Wow! Congratulations!

You are definitely NOT alone in the way you feel, btw. I definitely have all those same feelings ... so it's really cool (and helpful!) to see that it's not just me.

You're absolutely right - action helps, A LOT. Also I try to stay focused on how I'll feel at the end of the day when I'm trying to jump start at the beginning.

(Richard Carlson's "You Can Feel Good Again" is also highly recommended. He wrote it for people with serious depression - which, thank God! - I don't have. {A relative did and I know the difference.} BUT his common-sense strategies for those folks definitely can be usefully applied, I have consistently found, to garden-variety low & bad moods.)

All the success in the world to you, Deidre. (And, P.S., you are a fine writer.)

[susan francy]

i'm a pro "dweller in the doubt" but realize the total destructiveness of it and have a neat trick up my sleeve. rather than focus on arguing with my doubts i give myself a simple task: put in one hour on whatever i need to do but am avoiding: building a new website, following up with contacts i've made, etc.. i can be feeling really discouraged but i'm always capable of that one hour and of course - surprise! surprise! - i get fired up and move forward and usually work more my one hour.
btw, i'm a photographer growing my business after relocating to Sarasota, FL. reading your blog has been a big help. thanks!