President’s Message:
Is Fear Keeping You from Greatness?

by Debbie Kerr, President

I saw someone on TV the other day who said that great people are just people who faced their fears instead of letting them control their lives. How many times have we missed an opportunity because we weren’t sure how something was going to turn out?

Fear of Flying

While I am not exactly afraid of flying, it is not one of my top 10 things to do. I haven’t flown in about 22 years, and I have to get on a plane to the go to the STC annual conference in Las Vegas. I have not been making a conscious effort not to fly. It just has not come up before. Any vacations that I have gone on with my family have always been within driving distance, and I haven’t been sent any where through work.

In fact, someone called me to do a telephone survey and asked me how important vacation was to me. I answered a series of questions, and then near the end of the survey the person asked me when I last flew in a plane. When I answered 1984, the person hung up on me. Here I was doing them a favour by completing their survey, and they hung up on me, because the question that was the most important to them was left to the end of the survey. Fortunately, they gave me the opportunity to get even. Several months later someone called my house and asked me how important vacation was to me. I answered that it was very important to me, but I hadn’t been on a plane since 1984, and then I hung up on them. I know it wasn’t the same person, and some innocent telemarketer had no idea what just happened, but I felt some satisfaction.

The point is, I am taking a deep breath and going outside my comfort zone to make sure that I go and see new things and meet new people. The pros to going to this conference far outweigh any cons to flying. I have even turned it into a family vacation so that my children can experience flying for the first time. This also forces me to deal with my fears and make flying a fun experience for them. It may not make me a great person, but I am hoping that I will at least be a great role model.

Fear of the Unknown / Fear of Not Being in Control

For my husband, not being in control is part of the fear of flying. When he is driving, he is in control, but when he has to trust someone else, then that is another story. For medical reasons, I don’t get to drive a car, so letting someone fly a plane is not a problem for me. My problem is that I need to know what is going to happen from the moment I arrive at the airport to the moment I get off the plane. Since I haven’t been in an airport in such a long time, things have changed a bit, making me feel a bit out of control. Although flying on a plane and being somewhere I have never been before is exciting, it conflicts with my preference to manage and take control of situations. To step out of my comfort zone, I have to weigh the pros of seeing new places and meeting new people against the con of being out of control.

Fear of Volunteering

Those of you who have flown many times are laughing at my words. In this day and age, who hasn’t flown to all kinds of other countries? Everyone has gone on big vacations. For someone to be in her forties and not have flown in over twenty years is very strange. It’s so easy to fly: what is the big deal?

For someone who has been on the council for a long time, I might say the same thing to you. What’s the big deal? Why don’t you just volunteer? What are you afraid of? It certainly isn’t as dangerous as flying. It doesn’t cost you as much as travelling.

Are you afraid of the unknown? If you have questions about a particular position, ask questions. Don’t just say no. Find out more.

Are you afraid of the time commitment? While some portfolios do require as much planning time as a vacation, the sense of satisfaction you feel can be the same as when a vacation comes together. Granted, you may not have the tan to go with it, but there are other rewards. There are also portfolios that require different amounts of time.

Are you afraid that you don’t know enough? No one knows everything; so don’t wait until you think you know enough to be on the council. Everyone learns something during the year on council, from the seasoned to the newest members. That’s one of the benefits.

Like any other fear, you have to weigh the pros and cons and see how they balance out. Remember, you have to look for those pros. When fear is involved, it’s not easy to see the pros, because the fear gets in the way. If you want to achieve greatness, you have to overcome that fear, and do those things that you may not normally do.

What is greatness?

The answer to that question is an entirely different article, because it is entirely subjective. Look at who was on the list of great Canadians: some were people you expected to be there, and others were a complete surprise. It just goes to show you that you don’t have to lead the country or discover something to be great. There are the standard things that people believe are great like writing the perfect piece of documentation, and then there are the personal achievements where people overcome their fears and do something that they would not normally do.

So every success, big or small, is a step towards greatness when it is forces you to face your fears. Think about volunteering to be on council next year. Once you do this, your quest for greatness is even closer.

To volunteer, contact Opal at nominations@stc-soc.org.

About Debbie Kerr

In the 20 years that Debbie has been writing documentation, she has worked in a variety of industries: government, retail, software, and insurance. She is currently employed at The Economical Insurance Group in Waterloo, where she has stepped out of her traditional role of writing user guides and help files, and now writes a variety of specifications.

Debbie has been a member of the STC since 1994 and has been a council member for many years. Most recently she was The Quill editor for two years.