Pitching Pebbles and Choosing Persistence

Take a few minutes today to listen to this short podcast:

Choosing Persistence by Essential Communications.

If you feel anxious about rejection of your marketing efforts and if you ever find yourself psyching yourself out by how anxious you are about querying, this is for you. I especially love the following visualization, which is great for all of us and our, well, pitching:

I imagined standing at the edge of a big pond. At my feet was a pile of pebbles. My task was to pick up one pebble at a time at pitch it into the center of the pond. The goal was to throw enough pebbles to the exact same spot so they would pile up under water until one would finally break the surface. I never knew how deep the pond was or how big the pile was under the water. My job was just to keep pitching. Any pebble that broke the surface of the water was a job I landed.

In my imagination, every pebble had possibility of being the one. I never knew beforehand which would break surface, so I had to clear mind and bring all my technique to bear on whatever stone was at hand. I couldn't be distracted by the previous stones already throne or the ones still to come. And I couldn't worry about what would happen if it didn't break the surface of the water, and I couldn't get seduced into thinking about the rewards I'd get if it did break the surface. Every stone was its own event and I had to attend to each one with care.

I also had to believe that every stone made a difference. I had to believe that every stone really was piling up under water even though I couldn't see them. I had to trust that I was doing the right thing in the right way, even when I had no feedback to prove that was true. It was so easy to fall into doubt: doubt that the task was too difficult, that it was too tiresome, too hopeless, too unfair, too whatever. But my belief was a choice, and I had to keep choosing my positive belief over and over.

Photo by petervanallen.