#85 The Hebbie Jebbies

Growth Instigator Hotline

What gives you the Hebbie Jeebies?

Thank you for calling GIH where we instigate growth one call at a time where we utilize antiquated technology to deliver 3-minute leadership lessons every day of the week! This is message #85 and I am Aaron Havens.

I’m usually a pretty chill dude. Not many things give me the Hebbie Jeebies (which if you look up is defined as extreme anxiousness). Yeah… no… I don’t really get too anxious. Growing up I’ve hear that phrase used some like “oh that haunted house gave me the Hebbie Jeebies” or “worms give me the Hebbie Jeebies”. Well yesterday I experienced something that gave me the chills, mild panic and yes extreme anxiousness. I mean my life wasn’t in danger, I just kinda wanted out of that experience. Let me explain…

Our company says it this way “we do the stuff you don’t want to do”. And one of our large commercial property management companies called up because of a moth infestation. We show up to “mitigate the problem” and boy were they right. At first I thought, how many moths can there be?

At one point I walked into an office space and 100’s and 100’s of moths were swarming. Here I was, standing in the middle of the room with a shop vac trying to suck up the moths and they were every where. Hitting my face, landing on me, coving the walls, hovering the light… you get the picture. For about 5 seconds I had to stop, take a breath, calm down and get back to work. It was a bit over whelming.

So have I set the stage properly?

What give you “extreme anxiousness”

In a room full of a thousands of moths, my tasked seemed too daunting. But you know what, when I stopped looking at the room at large and started focusing on sucking one moth up at a time, the nearly thousand moths turned into a couple hundred. And as I stayed diligent to the task, one moth at a time, the hundreds became dozens, and at one point, I was chasing one moth around the room to be the victor.

What seems too daunting for you today? What is giving you extreme anxiousness. And what are some things that you can do to break that mammoth of a thing down to bite-size chunks. Small achievable tasks. Moments to see progress, instead of all encompassing chaos.

Thanks for calling in today. Tune in tomorrow for the weekend edition of Growth Instigator Hotline. I want to hear from you. Tomorrow I want to hear from you!

Today, after the beep: I want to know what small steps you take when something seems insurmountable, and is causing extreme anxiousness.