Stepping out Your Comfort Zone
Tumblr! Here are some thoughts on leaving your comfort zone;
One small step out your comfort zone,
is one bigger step towards personal growth
Uncomfortable things may block your path,
the sooner you face it the sooner you can grow
I’ve noticed that facing uncomfortable things have led me to personal growth and growth as a musician. Like practicing, techniques and patterns are uncomfortable, to begin with, but the sooner you give it a shot the sooner you’ll grow into it and it’ll then become comfortable, then you move into the next level and so forth. Continuous growth.
Busking for me was originally terrifying, being amongst strangers playing music that I love, open to rejection and humiliation, but it soon aided in my personal growth. I feel the confidence to talk with strangers now, whereas before I’d rather have run away from any conversation. Now I enjoy it and thoroughly miss it with this quarantine.
From this first step out of my comfort zone onto the streets, it has grown into many opportunities I’d never seen myself doing. Like standing in front of an audience to give a TEDx talk;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-KJ1Z10Fk&t=2s
Flip flops were definitely a bad choice. If it wasn’t for that first step to go out and busk, I’d never of ended up doing this. The first few busking sessions were extremely uncomfortable and filled me with nerves, I’d even had a few cases where I went home crying because of feeling like a fool and having insults thrown at me. But I knew that in order to achieve the goal I intended (make a living as a musician and leave my supermarket job), I’d need to keep stepping out of my comfort zone to get there. Like trekking through a murky bayou infested with crocodiles and giant spiders, in order to get yourself to a safer place…? Uncomfortableness is a threat and the sooner you face it, the sooner you can get on with what you really want to do/who you really want to be.
So if there’s something you wanna do, and the only thing stopping you is an uncomfortable wall, then the sooner you climb it the better off you’ll be! Do it now! Like right now!
If you want to be a writer, but feel your words/stories aren’t going to be good, the sooner you make writing a habit, the sooner you can push those doubtful/negative thoughts aside. One word, becomes two, becomes one chapter, becomes one story, becomes one book, changes your life, changes other lives.
With the internet age, it’s easy to share things, your art, your thoughts and yourself. It’s also terrifying to share because you’ve opened yourself up to the entire internet world -which is gargantuan. Full of trolls and people who are just looking to find flaws in everything. But also full of wonderfully kind people who’ll compliment and share your work. With that, it can become uncomfortable to share, but again once you start doing it and getting over the fear of other peoples judgements, you’ll grow comfortable with sharing your journey and your creations. Which can, in turn, affect other people in a positive manner and aid them in doing something that they love. The internet also connects you with those doing/thinking the same, your niche podcast on spiders might open up a whole community that loves discussing and learning about spiders. Giving space for those who feel uncomfortable about their individual love for spiders, to open up, connect and feel comfortable in an online community.
For instance this – I feel uncomfortable doing, talking to a camera and sharing it. But starting a podcast and vlogging this music journey I am on, is something I’ve wanted to do for some time. Generally documenting the journey is something I really enjoy doing, writing words, sharing stories, uploading improvisations and pictures from busking sets. It’s a nice way for me to share what I do and for myself to look back and see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve done.
So my best advice for you is to give it a shot, trek through that difficult uncomfortable terrain towards a new land and share the steps that you take. You’ll look back in 6 months time and see your own progression, you’ll see the impact it has on other people and it’ll fuel you to trek through the next uncomfortable terrain. To keep growing and expanding.
You got this! The first step is the hardest! So go and do it now!
