Evergreen and Everlasting!
You must put yourself out there. Have you ever had that vision of you stepping on to a stage, spotlight shining on you, while you look at a pitch-black audience, your palms are sweaty, and you don’t know what to say?
No? Well maybe that’s just me. But the point can resonate with all of us – you must step outside of your comfort zone and put yourself out there to succeed. Even when success seems so far away.
This is obviously much easier said than done. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but for me speaking in public is one of my biggest fears (hence the example to start this week’s Everlasting Evergreen section). Every time I have an upcoming talk in front of a group of people, I dread it. The reaction when I tell my friends that I hate public speaking is disbelief. They always counter with “but you are so great up there.” What they don’t see is the stress leading up to that moment. The rehearsing, the pacing, the thinking that I’m in over my head. But at the end of the day what gets me through it, is the knowledge that I have something to give, therefore, I must put myself out there.
There’s a saying that I always see online that really hits home – “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” That couldn’t be more true. If you want to succeed, you must put yourself out there, regardless of how nervous, or scared, or intimated you may be. If we hid behind these self-imposed limits, we’d never accomplish anything.