Dear Dr. Laura,
Here is a time I stepped out of my comfort zone. I was scared, witless to crawl out of a perfectly comfy mailroom and get on the crazy, busy phones of a call center, and my nerves did indeed get frazzled. But that led to company-paid sales calls with market managers in San Francisco, New Orleans, the tri-state area and the absolute time of my life, Shanghai, China, where I did some training for four months.
I don't want to write about me so much as point out something we've lost and, I believe, desperately need to get back as a country. And your daily dose inspired me with the quote: "Great things never came from comfort zones." That should be etched in stone and brought down from Mt. Sinai. Human beings are strange creatures in that they're at their best when times are at their worst. Steven Spielberg will tell you the most miserable time of his life was 1974 while shooting "Jaws". The shark never worked. He had to improvise with barrels and John Williams' eerie music. The result of his zone of supreme discomfort is one of the best movies of all time and my personal favorite. President Kennedy explained why we were going to the moon, "Not because it is easy, but because it is hard!" We're not like that anymore. Staples gives us easy buttons, cars are beginning to drive themselves and our phones do everything, but cut our meat for us. We're too comfortable. We're atrophying. It used to be you didn't have to go looking for a challenge, but technology is too advanced now. Yes! We must intentionally jump out of our comfort zone. Often! There's no greater feeling than achievement, earning something, busting your butt, being out of your league, being scared, criticized, doubted, failing and then, at last, pulling it off. No drug, no app, no easy button can come close to that high.
I'm motivated now to get out there and get uncomfortable. It's the right thing to do.
John
