Push beyond your “safe zone”

“…the only limitations are those you put in place yourself.” 

Angie Papple Johnston

Just recently I had a client call me and ask about doing some scriptwriting for a commercial. Now, while I have done many different types of projects, scriptwriting wasn’t one of them. In fact, I had only done two: one a few months back and one several years ago. 

To add to the challenge, this was a new client, and the assignment would be my very first for that company. On a topic that I was not familiar with. With a very short deadline. 

When I started full-time freelancing, this would have been the kind of project that I would have turned down because I didn’t think I had what it took to do it. Because I hadn’t done it before, I would have assumed I couldn’t do it now. 

But if there is one thing I have learned in the 17 years of being in business, learning opportunities equal income opportunities. In other words, if you want to grow your business, grow your expertise. Push beyond your safe zone and explore new topics and new types of writing. 

So, I agreed to do it, got some examples of past scripts and wrote the script. And, as it turned out, both my client and his client loved what I did. And sent me another one to do. 

The point is that you need to welcome learning curves, not let them throw you. You need to face the fear of not knowing how and fight it with education. 

Even those who have an inborn ability to write have to practice their craft. Even those who are expert at, say, writing articles, might need to learn how to do press releases. Or case studies. Or scripts. 

Fear thrives on ignorance. The less we know — or think we know — the more afraid we are. Defeat the fear by expanding your knowledge base!