Brilliance is born outside your comfort zone.
Doing the same things* you’ve been doing has gotten you where you are, but to take steps towards brilliance you must step further and further into your fear and the unknown.
*you know, those same old things
Life on the edge is where creativity and magic happens.
However, it’s the furthest away from being comfortable you can get.
Comfortable is staying at your job even though you hate it.
Comfortable is a nice warm bed that’s hard to get out of.
Comfortable is opting out of networking events because you don’t feel like it, or don’t like them.
Comfortable is not asking, not writing your book, not starting your business, not failing, not traveling, not asking that person out on a date, not leaving your house, not joining that race, and not doing X because of fear of Y.
If we’re not careful, comfortable is where we go to die.
We must learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable if we ever want to make true impact and stride.
Learn to be comfortable in what makes you uncomfortable +
Uncomfortable, as in anything you know that’s probably good for you, but you find terrifying to do.
We all have similar, yet unique things that we find uncomfortable. What’s uncomfortable for me, might be easy for you, and vice versa. But the most universally uncomfortable things is anything to do with us standing out.
Isn’t it ironic that we want to stand out, but fear standing out.
Your task is to find what makes you uncomfortable and linger on them. Inhabit them. Learn to be comfortably* uncomfortable.
*to make up a word
What’s uncomfortable to us doesn’t usually go away, but it does lose it’s effect on us when we learn to sit with it. For example, you may always be scared of public speaking, but if you do it anyway, you’ll have control over your fear, vs it having control over you.
Being Comfortably Uncomfortable is about being in control of your fear instead it being in control of you.
Ask Yourself:
Q: What makes me uncomfortable?
Q: What am I not doing simple because I am sacred to do it and scared to stand out?
#KeepPursuing — Josh Waggoner | Renaissance Man | Updated: Jan 21st, 2017
‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’ Email me (josh@renaissancemanlife.com) your thoughts on this post. Can you reduce the essential idea further?
Renaissance Life, How to Be Brilliant
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related wisdom
“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.”
“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”
