THE HISTORY OF MAIN STREET MEDIA GROUP BY WAY OF THE CHOKE HOLD

A few weeks ago, I spent two hours being choked out, rolled over, kicked at, and knocked down. And I actually paid to have this happen—at a Ground Defense seminar . Make no mistake about it, this was not the class where they teach you to put your keys between your fingers and yell “No!” really loudly. After the 225 jumping jacks, 90 push-ups, and 150 sit ups, we hit the mats to learn how to take someone down, break a choke hold, and grapple until one person could no longer advance their position.

Obviously this was pretty tough stuff, and after only two hours, nobody was going to walk away an expert. Rather, the point of all of this was to desensitize us to landing on the ground—the most dangerous place to be in a personal attack. The theory of Ground Defense is that if you've been vulnerable on the ground before, you can take stock of the situation, avoid panic, and do what has to be done to save yourself.

I think this theory is a good metaphor for life in general. During the class, I engaged in new behavior to be prepared for possible trouble down the road. Continuing that reasoning in a less fatalistic way, it occurred to me that stepping out of our comfort zones in other areas of our lives will not only broaden our horizons, but could also also prepare us for later opportunities.

For example, I’m not a joiner. But at a friend’s urging, I joined the Hingham Mothers’ Club. Eventually I started doing the club’s PR and got to know some of the local press. One of them tipped me off to a group who needed help with social media marketing. Instead of just sipping my coffee and nodding agreeably, I called two women who love social media as much as I do and we started a company. Then we pitched the potential clients and won the business. We’ve since won several more stellar clients and now the three of us are working in an industry that we truly love.

They say do something that scares you every day. Frankly, I don’t have time to seek out something every day to scare myself. But I have noticed that since founding our company, I am doing something slightly scary at least once a week. My advice to you: next time you find yourself faced with a new challenge, avoid panic, take stock of the situation, and just for the hell of it, give it a shot.

Who knows what could happen.