Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone —Neale Donald Walsch
I love good quotes, especially short, simple ones that are thought provoking.
Several years ago, I had bought a square-shaped black magnet with the words “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” in white font on it and put it on my refrigerator as a gentle reminder to my son and me to continually step outside of our comfort zones so that we can experience where life begins over and over again.
Since then, I have stepped outside of my comfort zone so often that I rarely notice that I am stepping outside of it anymore, which has filled me with a sense of accomplishment and empowerment.
That said, I refused to step outside of my comfort zone with public speaking. I shuddered with anxiety just thinking about giving an oral presentation as I have never liked being the center of attention, and I prefer to see my words in front of me as I assemble them into sentences so that I can edit the sentences while doing so instead of attempting to edit them as I am saying them in front of a group of people.
At the beginning of August of last year, a college prep facilitator for parents, Suryakala Jandhyala, whom I had connected with on LinkedIn that month, asked me to create a presentation on writing college essays and present it to a college prep support group for parents of high school students.
Although I felt honored that she so quickly viewed me as an expert in the field of writing and saw value in the services that I provide, I politely declined the presentation offer and told her the same thing that I had told other professionals who had asked me to give presentations on writing: “My strong suit is written communication.”
After doing so, the words on the magnet, which hasn’t been on my refrigerator since I moved almost a year and half ago, kept resurfacing in my mind and challenging me to answer the questions “Why are you selectively stepping outside of your comfort zone?” and “Why are you turning down opportunities to share your wealth of writing knowledge with parents of students who could benefit greatly from that knowledge?”
It was those two questions that pushed me to to finally agree, in the middle of November of last year, to create and give an hour-long(!) presentation in January of this year on the importance of writing leading up to, during, and after the college application process (and to agree to have the presentation recorded while I was giving it!).
Yes, I felt anxious in the weeks leading up to the presentation and during the presentation, but I felt really good after I had finished giving it because I had done something that I had told myself I would never choose to do—give a presentation to a group of people whom I didn’t know—and I had shared valuable and helpful knowledge with a group of parents and high schoolers who were in search of guidance on how to approach college admission writing.
Was the presentation up to the high standards that I set and hold for myself with everything that I do? No, but it gave me the confidence to try again and, in turn, the opportunity to improve my public speaking skills with each additional presentation that I choose to give.
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