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(By Troy Price) This week, thousands of podcasters will be attending Podcast Movement. That will be a great time for them. There will be many more thousands of podcasters back home watching their feeds for news and activities from around Orlando. For those of us who are at home this week, these few days may be the lowest we feel emotionally all year.
With that in mind, it is important to not let our feelings spiral out of control and affect all or our podcasting efforts. I found an excellent quiz on the website Mindtools.com (found here https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_08.htm) that was originally intended to measure burnout in the workplace but poses some questions that we homebound podcasters can use to make sure our FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is not out of control.
Podcaster’s Podcast Movement 2019 FOMO Quiz
Please respond YES or NO to the following questions to determine if your fear of missing out on Podcast Movement 2019 is overly affecting your overall podcasting efforts.
- Do you feel under an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed?
- Do you feel that you have no one to talk to?
- Do you feel that you am achieving less than you should?
- Do you feel like you are harder and less sympathetic with people than perhaps they deserve?
- Do you feel that you are not getting what you want out of your podcasting efforts?
- Do you feel that there is more work to do than you practically have the ability to do?
- Do you feel that you do not have time to do many of the things that are important to doing a good quality job?
With your quiz complete, look back over each YES answer. Do you feel isolated? That is a concern. Do you think you have limited ability? Explore what makes you feel weak in that area. Do you have too much anxiety as you release your show? What do you want your show to accomplish? Any YES could represent a legitimate issue present in your podcasting.
Here is why these kinds of questions are important to us right now. So often we podcasters are encouraged to focus on serving our niches. Most of the time we are coached to follow our own path, we are reminded that we are the producers of our own show and reminded we should go with what we feel. For at least 85% of the year we are applauded if we do not measure ourselves against anyone else. But there are the few weeks a year when there are major podcasting meetings and events.
During these times, things are different. All the conference/meeting promoters bill their events as the “go-to event” of the year. Everyone who attends these events posts their pictures with their podcasting heroes. In this environment, it is easy to feel like a failure if you do not attend these events.
That’s why this is exactly the right time to assess your feelings about your work and an especially good time to keep your negative feelings in check. Really explore the reasons behind each question to which you answered YES. And evaluate if they are exacerbated by not being in Orlando this week. If they are, know that they will ease next week. If your YES stems from a deeper issue, this is a good time to explore the root of your feelings.
Regardless of you attendance at Podcast Movement 2019, this could be a great week for individual learning.