Exercise is a good one
What I do sometimes is log how fast I'm going on Strava and for a couple of weekends in March I put trainers on, ran between doors, and logged how far I'd run in two days.
It was something like 11 miles a day, but I was so knackered afterwards I stopped running and canvassing at the same time!
Everyone feels 'The Fear' at first. I read somewhere that this completely irrational fear that you feel is a biological mechanism called "Approach Anxiety"
A long time ago, Back when all humans lived in small rural communities, only the Alpha males had access to the females, and the beta males would sometimes make attempts to approach the females.
If the beta male was rejected by a female, this would occur in front of the entire community, and it would completely ruin that beta males chances of accessing a female for a very, very long time.
Fairly recently (in terms of the length of time it takes to for evolution to happen) we've moved to cities and towns. And so, a beta male could now, in theory at least, approach 10s of thousands of females, with very little social consequences (watch any nightclub Lothario or read Neil Strauss's "The Game" for evidence of this happening).
So, according to this theory, that terrible fear of 'Approach Anxiety' you feel (and anyone who has canvassed will know exactly what I'm talking about!) is rooted in evolutionary biology. It is a biological mechanism that evolved when we were living in small communities and there were serious consequences for you if you approached someone and they rejected you.
Now we live in large cities, there are literally millions of doors out there to knock, and this fear you feel is a biological artefact from a different time. According to this theory, "Approach Anxiety" is basically a historic artefact of your biology messin' with your head.
Good point about constant exposure to risk habituating you to it.
I used to be a mountaineer (see
www.super-7.co.uk if you ever need a cure for insomnia) and constantly putting yourself in 'The Danger Zone' makes it so much easier to do it. So does pre-leafletting areas, because you are familiar with the area. Time spent in Reconniassance is never time wasted.
Two mental tricks that mountaineers apply to danger can be deployed for canvassing.
1. VISUALISE THE ROUTE
When I think of this long term canvassing mission I'm on (If things go my way, I have 12-18 months of canvassing 20-30 hour a week before my canvassing days are hopefully over, and I can afford to grow the biz with leaflets). I think of it as a route to the top of a mountain. So, every night and weekend I go out, I'm ticking off a section of the route. Break the 'challenge' down into small steps. A little and often is the way to go. You can also give yourself 'half time', a break to relax and celebrate what you've achieved half way through the session / week / month.
2, FOCUS ON THE PROCESS NOT THE OUTCOME
As you walk to the door, be in the moment and focus on your posture, your breathing and take a couple of deep breaths, (yogi's teach you do 'darth vader' style breathing because it 'settles' you more). Knock knock, this is when I quickly slam a couple of business cards thru the box. Boom! . Count to 12. At six seconds a leaflet (already pre-rolled on the walk up the drive) gets fired thru the door. Boom!
I can hear them approaching the door now. 10 seconds, I Swing body so I'm facing sideways towards them when they crack open the door and am in a non-threatening, sideways posture when they first see me. The door opens, I turn towards them, hold up leaflet so it is as near to my eyeline as possible. Eye contact, pause, smile if you have the energy and "Hi, I put this through your door...."
By focusing on the process, you will start to become less dependent on the outcome. In thousands of hours of canvassing I can count on the fingers of my hand the times when I've been a bit scared, because a homeowner is using foul language or is verbally threatening. It is very, very rare, maybe one or two times a year if you are canvassing full time.
Adam, I used to climb with a guy who was born with half a hand, and he climbed routes that were way harder than what I could do. He had a poster on his bedroom wall of a climber and the words he'd written on it were:
"Don't Let Your Fears Stand In The Way of Your Dreams"