Thank you for reading this week’s Operation Melt update.
Operation Melt started as a blog to share my personal transformation and weight loss story. After achieving success with that goal, Operation Melt has evolved into a platform to help inspire, motivate and equip people to achieve their own personal and professional goals so they can live their best lives.
I am trying to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.
Throughout my journey, I have learned that many life lessons can be learned by getting fit. This week I am sharing another installment of Fitness Lessons are Life Lessons.
National Suicide Prevention Day
Last week was National Suicide Prevention Day in the USA. This day is part of Suicide Prevention Week and Month. This day is intended as a time to remember those affected by suicide, to raise awareness and to focus efforts on directing treatment to those who need it most. Given the high rate of increase in suicide in the US, it is critical to take steps to help people in need with their mental health.
On Suicide Prevention Day a friend of mine took to social media to share a deeply personal post to talk about a difficult subject. She told the story of how she was impacted by suicide just a few short years ago. She debated on whether or not to share but chose to tell the store about what happened and how it touched her. Plus she reiterated to the people who saw that post that they have value to the world around them.
At the end of her post she also shared a very relevant Brene Brown quote that I have now added to my list of favorite quotes:
“Every single person has a story that will break your heart. And if you’re paying attention many people have a story that will bring you to your knees. Nobody rides for free.”
I cannot imagine how hard this event was on her. Going public to relive the event, to share the impact and to be that vulnerable had to be very difficult. But it is so important that she did and I couldn’t be more proud of her for doing so.
She will never know how much her story, her post and her vulnerability will help those in need.
Putting Yourself Out There
This Suicide Prevention Day post was so inspirational because my friend put herself out there to tell a deeply personal story about a topic that many people avoid discussing. She could have just as easily have stayed quiet and continued to manage her grief and her healing her own. But that wasn’t the choice she made. She put herself out there in hopes to help others.
As I discussed in last week’s post it is important to put yourself out there. It is important to get yourself into the game. It is important to get out of your comfort zone if you want to accomplish your goals. If my friend can put herself out there to share such a painful story, what step can you take?
Fortunately, as you would expect from such a personal story, my friend had plenty of reactions to her post and lots of people showed her gratitude and support. She knew she was being heard and that her story is inspirational and impactful. This helps overcome one of the hardest parts about putting yourself out there.
The Deafening Sound of Silence
One thing that makes it difficult for people to put themselves out there is silence.
When somebody takes the big step to share a personal story, to create something and make it public, to tiptoe into a new art form or to share a new goal the response can be a little unpredictable. When you take that step and put yourself out there and the response is silence from your audience, it sucks. It is painful. It is a letdown. It can be incredibly discouraging.
Part of why this silence is so deafening is related to how our brains work. When faced with an absence of information, our brains tend to fill in the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the story we tell ourselves is rarely positive.
I can tell you from experience that silence can be discouraging. Each week I share various forms of content through my blog and social media.
I am really not trying to compare my content with the personal story my friend shared, I am just trying to illustrate my point. The goal of this content is to help inspire people to take the plunge and pursue their goals, to motivate them to continue through the tough times and not give up on their goals and to provide some tools and techniques that can help contribute to success.
I usually spend a few hours each week thinking about my message, writing my post revising my post and creating the associated artwork for publishing it. Once I am satisfied that it is good enough that I want to put it out into the world with my name on it, I publish. Then it is out there to be judged by the world.
Very often the response to my posts is silence. I may get a couple of likes on social media then but those likes are usually not accompanied by any engagement, feedback, comments or any other sign that my content is being read.
This silence could easily convince me to pack up shop and stop spending my time publishing content. But I don’t give up because I know this isn’t the end of the story.
You Don’t Know
I can see from my site statistics and from social media metrics that my content is being viewed. I get a small number of readers every week. I know my content is connecting with people based on the numbers.
But there’s more… Every once-in-a-while I get feedback from a person represented by those numbers, a reader of my writing.
Several times I have learned that somebody I didn’t know was reading my posts and was helped by my message. So, if one person was helped by my message, and multiple other people saw it too, it stands to reason that other people were helped too and I just don’t know.
One of the key lessons I have learned from being a producer of content is that you never know who you are helping or whose life you may be impacting. While it is nice to get the likes, the comments, the feedback and the engagement, this doesn’t always happen. And it doesn’t need to.
If you put yourself out there, if you get into the game, you might win. You might be progressing how you are hoping. You might be making the impact that you are seeking. But you might not hear from people telling you that it is the case. This is ok because, quite often, the people who most needed to hear your message or be impacted by your creation are the ones that weren’t going to speak up. The ones who are most quiet about their needs are perhaps the ones who need to hear your message the most.
The truth is that you don’t know. So why not continue to try even when you don’t know. The results could be more beneficial than you ever dreamed possible!
How are you continuing to put yourself out there even when you don’t know the impact you are having? What more can you do to have even more impact? What goal can you pursue without knowing for sure if you are going to be successful? It is worth it to try… even if you don’t know.
I Need Your Help
Before you go I would like to ask you for a favor. I can’t build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness on my own. Please consider helping your friends find today’s post by following me on Facebook, on LinkedIn or via Instagram and share today’s post to your feed.
While you are at it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s post, your goals or anything else on your mind. Send me a note via my Contact Me form,
Thanks again for reading today’s post and here’s to achieving your most important goals!
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