I am so Damn Proud of Myself (Read: I just requested an inbound link from a stranger!)

Wow. THANK God for my Mastermind Group. Let me give you the quick history before I launch into my accomplishment for the week.

In my Mastermind Group, we meet weekly to discuss our goals and progress, keep each other on track and offer coaching when appropriate. We come in with weekly commitments, and if they aren’t accomplished by the next week, severe leverage is induced. I pick my own leverage - something so painful that I will HAVE to ensure my list is complete!! My leverage is that I would have to grow out my usually well-hidden moustache. For 2 weeks. Trust me, my work gets DONE.

So last week I said I would request 10 inbound links. Then I put it off. I avoided it until the AFTERNOON of my evening meeting. And then I knew I HAD to do it. I’m a social butterfly in person. I even just blindly invited 50 women bloggers to the BlogJolt group. Yet to contact people to request a link was different. I was asking rather than offering. And I was scared.

But I was even more scared to get hairy. I knew I had to put up or shut up. Plus, I had to ask myself: How can I offer leadership to my readers and blog about this stuff if I am too scared to do it myself? So I bit the bullet and started writing.

I was surprised, but in retrospect, I’m not. Avoiding it was the hardest part. When I had no choice but to sit down and write the damn emails, I found I could do it.

I even found a way to ask without sounding like a greedy pig.

And I even found a way to offer some value back.

And I even opened some doors to some really exciting partnerships in the process!!

As business owners, going outside of our comfort zone is an absolute requirement to success. Even as bloggers. Even as moms, for that matter. If we are always inside of our comfort zone, we are not growing.

Ironically, my friend Brett sent me a great quote this morning that really perfectly explains why this is so important for us as humans::

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.