A few years ago I did a live radio interview for the first time. It was a segment on Tudor Food for Talk Radio Europe, an English language station in Andalucia that served most of Spain. I was nervous. Really nervous. In fact, I was so nervous, I threw up in the bathroom while I was waiting.
But I drank some water, went out, shaking, and did the interview. And guess what? It went well. Like, really well.
A few weeks later they invited me back to talk about my Tudor podcasting, and have a chat about podcasting in general. I showed up much less nervous than before.
But I still threw up in the bathroom.
A year after that I was waiting backstage to go on with my mentor and one of my heroes, Jeff Goins, at his Tribe Conference, to talk about monetization of a passion.
Guess what I did in the bathroom?
You guessed it.
Seeing a pattern here?
I should say that I am in no way advocating for gastrointestinal issues in general, but I will say that there is a certain magic that comes from pushing yourself past where you would normally stop. Most people fail at their goals not because they don’t know what they’re doing, or they don’t want to put in the work. People, in general, work really hard at doing what they do. They put up with frustrations and misery, but it’s the familiar kind. The devil they know.
What stops most people is that they just don’t want to take the extra step to just get a little bit uncomfortable, and push past where they would normally stop. In order to change your life, you have to do things differently than you have normally done them. That means you have to live in the unknown for a while – until it becomes known.
The unknown is a new place. It’s scary. Most people don’t like that, and they go right back to where they were before, even though it’s not where they want to be.
You have to leap. You need to take the chance and scare yourself. Only then can you see what you are capable of.
So my request this week is that you do one thing that is outside of your comfort zone. Maybe it’s talk to a stranger. Be vulnerable with someone you know and love. Put the song on SoundCloud. Write the chapter.
Scare yourself, and see what happens.
Then tell me in the comments what you did, and how it went. Trust that your soul knows what it wants and needs, and it knows how to get there. You just need to get out of your own way, and be a little frightened. Let’s do it together!