LITTLE CROW MARKETING

At the start of March I began a new hobby. Hiking. I decided on a whim to sign up to do the Macmillan Mighty Hike half marathon in July – a whopping 13.5 miles up and down the sheer cliffs of the Jurassic Coast. And for someone who previously did zero exercise, it was quite the jump.

Our first hike we were only out for 2 and a half hours and I was practically on the floor by the time we finished. It was more than hard. It was uncomfortable. Intimidating. Sticky! To quote Kat Stratford in 10 Things I Hate About You, I was ‘sweating like a pig’.

But the next weekend I did it again… and again… I went on 14 hikes before the big event. I go every Saturday. I’ve gone from struggling up a few miles to doing 10 relatively easily. I even managed to scale up and down 1,125ft on a busted ankle, knee, hip, face (I fell big time and do not recommend it!) because I was determined to keep going.

I’ve now completed the Mighty Hike and my, what an experience. I didn’t feel much the day before – not nerves nor excitement, I think I was pushing it all away to protect myself mentally. Come the start of our hike I really struggled. The first 2 miles were just constantly moving uphill. We set quite the pace as there was a time limit to finish the event. I couldn’t catch my breath. I watched people pass me with ease while chatting, and there I was panting and red faced, and in all honesty panicking.

What if I can’t do this? What if I can’t even make it half way? I must look ridiculous to these other people and how pathetic am I that we’ve only done 2 miles?

But then something shifted. The hills eased and I managed to catch my breath. I met a group of really nice people who chatted away and distracted me from my previous panic. It got… dare I say easy? I began to have fun and fell into a good pace. I began overtaking other groups and making some really good progress.

Come the midway pit stop, we stopped for all of 5 minutes before I wanted to crack on and keep going. We knew that there was a huge climb at mile 10 – we’d been warned and everyone we spoke to had the same worry about it. I was worried. But then we got there and actually it was only half the climb of ones we’d done before.

It wasn’t fun per se. But it was fine. We stopped a few times on the way up, chatted and made jokes about how awful it was. Then we got to the top and took a little break to sit and eat sweets. To appreciate the view.

Then we carried on. On to the next bit. At mile 11 we were greeted by volunteers handing out skittles and the end was so close! Just 2.5 miles to go. We sped up, buoyed up by our achievement so far and our desire to finish. The last 10 minutes were hard. My feet hurt and my knees were extremely unstable after so many miles and so many steps, but I pushed on. We walked through the finish line as our names were called and were handed champagne and a medal. We wandered like zombies to the lunch tent and piled up our plates before plonking down into chairs with murmurs of ‘never again’.

But do you know what I found myself saying the day after, and every day since when people have asked? I would absolutely do it again. I’m going to sign up for next year. I thoroughly enjoyed it. All of it. Even the hard parts.

So why am I telling you all of this? What does this have to do with marketing or running a business?

Because as a business owner you are going to have to do things that feel a bit uncomfortable or even downright hard in order to push your business forward. In order to get to where you want and deserve to be.

It won’t all be easy and there may be tasks you want to avoid because it’s outside of your comfort zone, but by doing them you will be expanding that zone. One day you’ll turn around and realise that what you do on an average day now, used to seem really scary. But it’s not anymore.

So… how can you start to grow your comfort zone and develop your business?