Let’s revisit a topic we covered in our July 22nd Wellness Wednesday on comfort and risk.
I’m going to make an assumption about the most important day of your life…your birth day. Let this picture represent you on that most important day.
Why are you crying? Because you just left the most comfortable place you will ever experience in your life. Every need you had was taken care of for nine months. Now what? You’re not so sure what lies ahead since you’ve been booted outside of your fabulous Comfort Zone. You’ve just experienced the biggest risk you will ever take.
However, within moments, you very likely changed your feelings about this new experience. Here you are again.
What happened? You just experienced the journey from Comfort Zone to outside Comfort Zone. You just experienced the freedom and exhilarating possibilities that are now available to you. You just experienced the fundamental ‘way’ human growth and development happens. You now know that if you ever want to grow and develop again, you will need to follow this same ‘way’. Quite simply, it’s called ‘risk taking’.
The marvelous and unique potential inside of you will want you to choose risk taking again and again. And you have done so many times in your life already. You chose risk taking when you tried to roll over or take your first step…when you got on a bike, first went to school, or raised your hand to ask a question…when you socialized with friends or tried out for a team…when you applied for a job or went on a date. You even took a risk this morning when you got out of bed.
Justin Harmon helps people live with personal freedom, fulfillment, and purpose. He writes:
“If you’re afraid to take some risks and do something that scares you, you can never really understand who you truly are. We often learn the most about ourselves when we walk openly into challenges and learn how to overcome them. Despite feeling fear and doubt, we do something anyway and prove to ourselves just what kind of person we are.
We find out a lot about ourselves when we take risks. We discover what makes us tick and begin to see that part of ourselves deep inside, our true self, the one that holds the wisdom and power most of us are unaware of. When you can connect to your true self, you open doors to change, growth, progress, love, and understanding that cannot be found inside your comfort zone.”
In a sense, every day can be a birth day…a day when growth, development, or learning happens. The difference is that now we have to choose it if we want something new to birth in our lives. But the ‘way’ is still the same…to take a risk and move outside of our Comfort Zone.
Not every day is a birth day. As we discussed in last week’s Wellness Wednesday, we need times in our Comfort Zone where we feel safe and secure. But we also need birth days when we are in our Learning Zone and Growth Zone.
Next week we will focus on our Fear Zone, but this week let’s experience an invitation to a birth day party.
- I have recently been inspired by friends and family members who are taking some risks and experiencing birth days. Who is inspiring you by their choice to take a risk and move outside their Comfort Zone?
- What is outside of your Comfort Zone that is calling you to ‘come and get it’?
Best wishes from our Top 20 team…Kevin Brennan, Willow Sweeney, and Tom Cody…who keep inviting me to the party.
Paul Bernabei
Director
Top 20 Training
paul@top20training.com
