Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to try something scary. Getting out of your
Speaker 1: comfort zone makes time feel more intense and can even
Speaker 1: make time appear to move slowly. Given how life seems
Speaker 1: to speed by as we get older, that can be
Speaker 1: a very good thing. Now. I'm not a particularly brave person,
Speaker 1: but from time to time I force myself to do
Speaker 1: something that I think will make a good memory. My
Speaker 1: first real roller coaster expedition, Everest in Disney's Animal Kingdom,
Speaker 1: happened because my ten year old nephew wanted to go
Speaker 1: on it and needed an adult to go with him.
Speaker 1: It turns out roller coasters are quite fun, which makes sense.
Speaker 1: Why else would people wait hours in line for rides
Speaker 1: if they weren't exciting. I'm quite scared of heights, but
Speaker 1: I once went on a zip line tour of the
Speaker 1: rainforest Canopy in Nicaragua because well, I was there and
Speaker 1: it was certainly going to be a unique way to
Speaker 1: see a part of the environment that I could not
Speaker 1: see from the ground. Public speaking deserves a category of
Speaker 1: its own here. I know it's one of the most
Speaker 1: common fears. I grew up wanting to be a writer,
Speaker 1: and happily enough, I became one. But I soon realized
Speaker 1: that one of the best ways to make a living
Speaker 1: as a writer, both in terms of growing your audience
Speaker 1: and bringing in income, is to go around talking about
Speaker 1: the topic of your book. My first public speaking experiences
Speaker 1: were horrific, but I forced myself to keep doing it
Speaker 1: because not doing so would limit my potential audience. I
Speaker 1: decided to force myself to keep improving as well. The
Speaker 1: first time I gave a speech without notes or slides,
Speaker 1: I was petrified about how it would go. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: people were going to spend forty five minutes staring at
Speaker 1: just me. But I did it and felt so much
Speaker 1: more connected to the audience that now I rarely use
Speaker 1: PowerPoint unless my hosts insist on it. Facing our fears
Speaker 1: builds resilience and opens up all sorts of opportunities. Now,
Speaker 1: I will say that there is a difference between purposefully
Speaker 1: getting outside of your comfort zone and doing something unpleasant
Speaker 1: just to do so. I know some people believe we
Speaker 1: should intentionally do unpleasant things like take cold showers in
Speaker 1: order to toughen ourselves up. But I don't think most
Speaker 1: people's lives are so easy that they have to artificially
Speaker 1: engineer difficult moments just to experience them. Life throws all
Speaker 1: sorts of difficult things our way, with or without our consent. Childbirth,
Speaker 1: setting in an er with a sick kid, if you've
Speaker 1: calmed yourself through contractions, or through cancer treatments, or through
Speaker 1: watching a loved one being wheeled into surgery, I don't
Speaker 1: think you need to take cold showers just to prove
Speaker 1: you're tough. I'm more talking about about trying scary things,
Speaker 1: things outside your comfort zone that you suspect will open
Speaker 1: up new possibilities. Giving a speech is scary, but it
Speaker 1: will advance your career. Lobbying for a promotion is scary,
Speaker 1: but if you get it, you'll be able to use
Speaker 1: your talents on a bigger stage. If you don't get it,
Speaker 1: your company has learned that you want to advance, and
Speaker 1: often that nudges you toward the top of the list
Speaker 1: for the next time. Traveling solo is scary, but it
Speaker 1: means you learn about the world and can go places
Speaker 1: even if no one you know is up for the trip.
Speaker 1: Learning to swim or serf or ride a bike as
Speaker 1: an adult is scary, but it opens up amazing recreational
Speaker 1: opportunities that won't happen if you stay comfortable. And here's
Speaker 1: an added benefit. Taking risks builds memories. I've studied how
Speaker 1: we perceive time, and one explanation for why time seems
Speaker 1: to go faster as we get older is that so
Speaker 1: much is just the same over and over again. We
Speaker 1: commute to work the same way, We do the same things,
Speaker 1: so our brain doesn't bother remembering it. But think back
Speaker 1: to high school or college. Didn't those years seem longer
Speaker 1: than the past four years of your life. Part of
Speaker 1: this is that as a young person, you are figuring
Speaker 1: out your life. You put yourself in new situations, and
Speaker 1: you learn things as you took risks with first loves,
Speaker 1: first jobs, first realizations that the adults around you didn't
Speaker 1: actually have everything figured out. You will definitely remember the
Speaker 1: first time you give a speech. You will remember the preparation,
Speaker 1: the moments before, what the space where you are waiting
Speaker 1: looks like. You will remember taking the stage and seeing
Speaker 1: so many faces staring at you. None of this disappears
Speaker 1: into a memory sinkhole. And while it's difficult that's a
Speaker 1: good thing because life feels more full the more memories
Speaker 1: we develop. So what difficult thing will you try in
Speaker 1: service of a larger purpose? How will you step outside
Speaker 1: your comfort zone? Look for an opportunity this week and
Speaker 1: see what happens in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number four then breakfast pod. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.