How do we become comfortable with discomfort?
Please, please, please… can I take an email from yesterday back?
I’m running my third marathon in June with Team in Training, the athletic training fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have to raise a minimum of $975, and yesterday I thought it would be a brilliant idea to write to my old college buddies to ask for help.
The letter was funny and compelling, or so I thought, with a pointed call to action: donate within 24 hours, and I’ll match your donation dollar for dollar.
I figured I’d get back a couple of funny notes, a few good wishes, and I really hoped to get a donation.
I sent the email yesterday at noon. It’s been 20 hours, and I hear crickets. One of my friends actually did write back to let me know she had made a donation to her school’s drive, which is awesome. But the other 18 people? Nothing.
OOOHHH I HATE ASKING FOR MONEY! I don’t mind at all that they didn’t want to donate. But now I feel like the heel who keeps asking. I want to write them back and apologize, let them know that no one has to give me money for anything. Have I alienated them? Do they see things from me and just hit delete? Do people on Twitter block me because of my fundraising efforts? Do friend in my neighborhood see me at the coffee shop and take their coffee to go so I don’t hit them up?
I wish I could just write a check for the remaining funds and go back to being just Plain Old Beth, not Always Begging Beth.
But here’s the problem… I really want to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I really want to make a difference. I’ve found that most people dear to me *do* want to help out where they can. They just need to be asked, and they’re happy to make a contribution. And some awesome, awesome people have already chipped in — almost $400 collected so far.
So how do I become more comfortable with my discomfort? It’s similar to asking for a raise or cold calling to find new clients. These are things we have to do, yet these are things we hate to do. We get a knot in our stomachs as we try to smile and ask people to give us something: a job, a few moments of their time, their hard-earned money. How do we find the strength to keep asking even with our discomfort?
What makes you uncomfortable, and how do you push through? I could really use some advice. 
And, err, umm, I could also use a few more donations.
Cade Long on 04 Feb 2009 at 10:27 am #
Everything in life worth having is discomforting. I had to ask people for my mission trip this past year and it was quite a barrier to push through. I applaud your efforts to raise money for that because they need people like you. Twitter has quite a bit of fundraising on fridays and I’m sure you have considered that. Through raising money you have become their champion and they need that and you. So please continue to do what you have been doing Beth! You are making a difference!
Nichole on 04 Feb 2009 at 10:37 am #
Oh Beth. You worry too much, I think. Hopefully the explanation for my own delay will make the knot in your tummy go away… for a little while anyway. My budget will allow me to donate on the 15th. Look for it then.
People are quite generous when the cause is right. And this one is. 
)
Danny Brown on 04 Feb 2009 at 10:52 am #
I’d agree with Nichole, Beth – a lot of the times people wait until the end of the month (or nearer the end) to spend money. Whether it’s to buy a new shirt, go to the movies or give to charity – month end always seems a better time. Maybe because most bills are paid and people know better how much they have to spend.
I guess sometimes there’s also the question of what charities do people want to contribute to (or are able to). I guess we live in a double-edged age where people want to help, but we sometimes feel like there are so many charitable causes coming at us.
It’s not anyone’s fault, except the governments that have put charities in the position that they need our help in the first place. If they reviewed what’s more important for funding, and approved more aid packages and tax breaks for non-profits, people like your good self wouldn’t have to.
Keep up the great work and never feel sorry for being someone that wants to change the world.