Eight months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 259. Yesterday, I talked about cherishing the moments we've had and not letting loss be something to be sad about. Today is a new day.
"So why would you volunteer to put yourself through this", you might say, but that's the whole point. If teaching has taught me one thing, it's that it's okay to make mistakes and putting yourself outside of your comfort zone helps you grow. I figured that this would be a good way for me to challenge myself (and I got some nice overtime pay for it, too). If we live our lives just coasting through it nothing will change. We might get lucky here and there, but we won't really grow. In most cases we stagnate and the moment we become complacent with such a lifestyle it only goes downhill.
In order to challenge ourselves, however, we also have to be willing to make mistakes. Mistakes are there to show us how not to do things. We can't expect ourselves to be perfect all of the time, but we can choose to correct what we've done wrong. I'm still learning to get comfortable with putting yourself out there and being willing to make mistakes, but along my journey I've found that it's increased my confidence. It's helped me care less about the outcome and more about what I can gain from my experiences.
If you have any opportunities to get out of your comfort zone, take them. It'll really suck at first, but you'll develop toughness from it. Some people might call it character. But you don't have to wait for these opportunities to arise. You can go out there and create them for yourself. What's something that you could be doing that's out of your comfort zone? Get out of your shell and do it. Expand your horizons and see just how far you can reach out and develop yourself. The possibilities are only limited by how far you're willing to go.
Peace
"If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying." - Coleman HawkinsToday I was the MC (master of ceremonies) for a junior high school English speech contest, and it overall went really well. I made a few mistakes here and there, but despite that I felt really great about it. Although I'm a teacher, I'm actually not really that comfortable with public speaking. With kids, they don't care if you make mistakes and just want to have fun, but in a room where the whole audience is looking at you, every moment feels like an eternity and it's reaaaaaaly uncomfortable.
"So why would you volunteer to put yourself through this", you might say, but that's the whole point. If teaching has taught me one thing, it's that it's okay to make mistakes and putting yourself outside of your comfort zone helps you grow. I figured that this would be a good way for me to challenge myself (and I got some nice overtime pay for it, too). If we live our lives just coasting through it nothing will change. We might get lucky here and there, but we won't really grow. In most cases we stagnate and the moment we become complacent with such a lifestyle it only goes downhill.
In order to challenge ourselves, however, we also have to be willing to make mistakes. Mistakes are there to show us how not to do things. We can't expect ourselves to be perfect all of the time, but we can choose to correct what we've done wrong. I'm still learning to get comfortable with putting yourself out there and being willing to make mistakes, but along my journey I've found that it's increased my confidence. It's helped me care less about the outcome and more about what I can gain from my experiences.
If you have any opportunities to get out of your comfort zone, take them. It'll really suck at first, but you'll develop toughness from it. Some people might call it character. But you don't have to wait for these opportunities to arise. You can go out there and create them for yourself. What's something that you could be doing that's out of your comfort zone? Get out of your shell and do it. Expand your horizons and see just how far you can reach out and develop yourself. The possibilities are only limited by how far you're willing to go.
Peace
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| There's a whole world out there waiting to be explored. Taking the first steps out of the protective bubbles we've created for ourselves is the biggest hurdle we have to take. Once we overcome it the first time, it isn't so bad. |
If you have any thoughts, stories, or experiences share them in a comment below!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day~