This week I found myself at Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver. This is a very beautiful place.

There is a deep canyon with steep walls that the river rushes through, over and around creating amazing waterfalls, pools and caves. It is a popular spot for cliff diving which often ends badly. The canyon walls are a kaleidoscope of ferns, mosses and plants not seen anywhere else.

There are many signs warning of the danger and memorializing the many people who have died in the park, and there is a narrow suspension bridge that sways 50m above the canyon.

Living in the mountains, I no longer have a significant fear of heights, but know from taking clients to the wilderness that this fear, and specifically the fear of crossing a suspension bridge, can be very real to people.

As I arrived at the suspension bridge in the park, there was a woman perched firmly on the ground at the edge of the bridge. She was tense and her partner was trying to sooth her and convince her to walk across. Her fear was palpable and yet, I could sense she wanted to overcome her fear and make the crossing.

I smiled at her. She sort of smiled back and I asked her if she was going to do it? She hesitated before she answered that she hoped to. I asked her how long she had been pondering this challenge and she sort of grimaced and her partner laughed. No answer. My next comment was, “It doesn’t get easier as you ponder the risk. It gets harder.”

Research shows that your fear and your resistance increase the longer the brain has to focus on all of the bad things that may happen.

I crossed the bridge and I don’t know if she actually did or not, but it really struck me that this was a perfect metaphor for prospecting.

With the bridge, the risk is nearly nil.

With prospecting, the risk is nil. No one ever died while having conversations with people about real estate and yet in both cases, our brain creates a huge amount of fear and resistance that keeps us from doing something we want to do.

It’s September today and the kids will go back to school next week. Many of us have made a commitment to be more consistent in our business, and we all know this means doing some sort of regular prospecting. It doesn’t have to be a lot, it just has to be some.

Will you do it?

Just like the woman on the bridge, the longer you ponder it, the harder it gets. Make the decision to walk across and then – do it. Or, make the decision not to, then turn around and go back to the car.

If you decide not to prospect, it’s ok as long as you are ok with not having a healthy, consistent business.