“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”
I have spent the majority of my life living within the safe confines of my comfort zone. Never needing or wanting to step outside of it, because it’s called a comfort zone for a reason, right?
Equally never knowing, that there’s actually something much for fun and exciting happening on the outside of the comfort zone, but because I had never ventured outside of it, I had no idea it was there. . . .
In fact, I had got pretty good at being comfortably uncomfortable. I stayed in jobs longer than I wanted to, in relationships longer than I should have, never challenged myself as much as I could, and never really pushed myself as much as I probably could have, for fear of failure.
Now, and especially within the last 12 months I have spent the predominance of my time, outside my comfort zone, because, that’s where the magic happens. And without doing so, I wouldn’t have achieved the amazing things I have achieved in my life, nor would I have grown as much as I have.
Not only have I challenged myself by setting up my own business (which was WAY outside my comfort zone for someone who has not only spent the last 10 years in the corporate world, but who would have been petrified to run a team of people), but I also made the brave step of starting to sing again.
And in a funny way, the singing was actually more challenging and nerve-racking than setting up my business. I started singing at a very young age and have always loved it. I was always in 2 or 3 choirs at school and became a trained soprano. However, when I left school, I stopped singing for some reason, and then, in turn, lost my confidence.
I was always the first person to grab the mic after a few beers at a karaoke night, but was always safe and comfortable through the drunken haze of it all and no one really taking it seriously.
And it was only this time last year when I decided that I wanted to start singing again, that I started to really step outside of my comfort zone. I put an ad on Gumtree for a guitarist and a few months later I was on stage singing in front of a crowd of 150 people, shaking and petrified to heck, but afterwards so happy and proud of myself, because of what an amazing feeling it was to get up on stage and sing again.
So, the question is, which comfort zone do you need to step out of in order to create some magic in your life?
Inspiration for this post
Kat Kinnie's Blog 