Comfort Zone

If Given The Option

Garth Beyer

It’s better to be up than down. Optimistic attitudes, smiles, and focusing on what works is contagious.

It’s better to be on than off. Quit plainly, if you’re on, you’re functioning. Off days are the worst.

I bet you will agree with these two, but push back on this… It’s better to be out than in.

In feels safe. It’s your comfort zone. In means you’re analyzing, you’re consuming information, you’re gathering opinions, preparing for the out, the risky, the accountable actions.

In feels good.

Yet, you wouldn’t let yourself stay down, right? Nor off, correct? So, why in?

In a world of infinite knowledge, infinite emails, infinite blogs posts to consume, we feel the need to digest more before we can regurgitate something creative and original.

I’m all for yin and yang. An off day here and there makes the on days way better, but too many off days in a row… nothing good comes from it. Nor does anything good come from always taking things in.

Today, show out some love. Do something risky. Write something new.

 

Stay Positive & Get Out There

You Know What They Say About People With Big Shoes

Garth Beyer

Odd connection here, but I was fortunate to have ordered big shoes with my tuxedo for my best friend’s wedding this weekend. Who would have guessed I would jam my toe the night before the wedding and be in pain with my nicely-fitting gym shoes? (I’m still not convinced it’s not broken.) I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to bust a move on the dance floor because my toe would be pressing against the side of the dress shoe. As I said, fortunately the shoes I ordered were big and gave my foot space to move and slide around without the pressure leading to pain.

The experience made me think how it really pays off when we have big shoes to fill: when we put ourselves in positions above what we believe we’re capable of, when we take on more than we think we can handle, and when we put ourselves in large uncomfortable situations.

I’ve taken a freelance job that requires more skill than I have, that someone older or with more years of experience could do better, and that has made me a bit nervous. Big shoes to fill.

Yet, I’ve got space to explore, room to stretch (and grow), and nothing to lose. Great thing about big shoes to fill is no one expects you to fill them. Great thing is you now have a great source of motivation to fill them. It’s not so much about proving them wrong as it is proving yourself right.

 

Stay Positive & Remember, You’ve Got Room To Breathe

Once You Leave

Garth Beyer

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. You risk at all levels. Most people stay in their zone because of that risk, because of their fear. Nothing can throw you out of wack if you stay put in your structure. The interesting revelation is this:

Once you leave your cubicle, your apartment, your comfort zone, your box, you expose yourself. But what you expose yourself to is never what you think and worry about. Once you leave your zone, everything that you dreamed of, craved, and desired in your zone, comes to you.

Want to find love? How can you do that when you stay in your room all day? Forget it. Anyway, love will find you….once you leave your room.

Want to see something truly beautiful? Even more beautiful than what you can Google on the internet or see out your window? You have to leave your space.

Want to laugh unexpectedly? Once you leave your box, something will happen that makes you crack up.

Just getting out of the place you confine yourself to, that you are comfortable with, is all it takes to get what you want. You don’t have to go after it, you don’t have to jump 50 hurdles to get it, all you need to do is get out!

Go to the park. Find a place to see the sunset. Walk to the grocery store. Don’t worry about how you dress, what you carry, or if you wear any shoes. Just leave.

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This post was inspired by the experience I just had. I’ve been in my apartment all day (got off work early) and wasn’t planning on leaving it. I was comfortable, I was safe with my books, my notepads, sticky notes, pens and laptop. I was content, even happy with the breeze and the sound of the water (how could I not be?). Then I decided to do something off Michelle Welsch’s Manual For Daily Adventure. I got up, grabbed a favorite book (Keri Smith’s How To Be An Explorer Of The World) and went to the park. The following things are what I got to experience because I left my apartment.

  • See a runner giving it her all.
  • Laugh and shake my head after watching two black basketball players almost get in a fight and one repeating to the other “you’re not gangsta!”
  • Three girls checking me out.
  • Laugh at a women on the phone only talking about getting drunk, hammered, plastered. Quote: “We will get drunk Sunday, that’s what labor day is for”
  • Pinpointed where an odd noise I kept hearing was coming from to a woman practicing opera.
  • Felt soft grass.
  • Got to observe more things, people, animals, sounds, sights, etc., than I would have in my apartment.
  • On my way back, had a good conversation with the three girls. If they didn’t smoke, I would have asked one for her number. Oh well.
  • Got to feel the ground. (Went barefoot)

That list sure beats the hell out of a list of what I would have experienced if I stayed in my apartment. The same goes for your cubicle at work, your comfort zone at school, your chair in the meeting room, your spot on the bus, your way you walk to work, your seat in class, and any “square” that you feel comfortable in.

 

Stay Positive & Experience Life

Garth E. Beyer

The Business Sport Of Soreness

Garth Beyer

Business is a lot like sports.

When you play a sport for the first time, you get sore, but through the soreness your muscles and body improve and grow in order for you to play the sport better. After a good few months of playing and practicing, your body no longer gets sore. Then what? The average activist would go on playing the sport only to find that they are making little improvement in their physique and skills. The intelligent activist would switch up the training routine whether it is by doing a different kind of sport (preferred) or merely working directly on separate strengths necessary for the sport. If you are not feeling the soreness, something is wrong. That means you are in your comfort zone, that you have plateaued and will develop very small improvements, if any.

In businesses, the soreness is called failure, often created from mistakes which were made because you are training and practicing. If you are not feeling any businesses soreness, then you are either not training hard enough or you need to change your routine to succeed any further. Don’t let your body or your business plateau, avoid habitual “sport” strategies.

In the Business Sport of Soreness competitors die standing still.

Stay Positive & Be The Winner, Not competitor

Garth E. Beyer