SM 023 It’s a terrible thing to wait.  (Monday, April 26th, 2019)

Welcome to the Second Mix Podcast where we reflect, revise, and remix our lives. My name is Matthew Bennett. If you like what you hear today, please subscribe and give me 5 stars wherever you can and IF you know of anyone who will find this content helpful, please join my mission and share this with them. At the end of this podcast there’s going to be a call to action -a call to take some little step to enhance your life – please join the Facebook Mastermind group Ideas and Concepts so we can keep talking about these ideas. The link is in the description.

I have been talking about the cycles of complexity that life throws at us – life can be challenging, but when you get through that challenge you’ll be better, stronger, and wiser. I put together a list of characteristics you need to get through, and these are Ethos, Intention, Efficacy, Agency, Adversity, and Elevation. 

Efficacy is your ability to produce an intended result. 

You will not grow in your comfort zone. We need the challenge of life in order to get stronger. I spent years doing only what was comfortable to me, and as soon as things became uncomfortable, I would bow out and say, “that’s not for me.” All the while, I wasn’t growing. I was staying the same in money, in value, in experience. 

This relates more to Ethos and mindset than it does to Efficacy, but you can’t expect to build the skills necessary to get out of your current situation if you refuse to leave your current situation. And an honest question here – if you’re entirely happy with your current situation, then why would you be listening to something like this? If your dreams and your vision are outside of your comfort zone, then you have to realize that you need to leave the comfortable place you are in order to get to the place of your dreams. Live the adventure. Embrace it. 

I got lucky in marriage – my wife taught me a huge lesson about comfort zones. She was a guitar player in a band I started back in 2011. We had two practices, and she started calling venues and booking gigs. Without talking to me about it. She’d call me and say, “Hey, we’ve got a gig in a few weeks. We should practice some more so we’re ready for it.” This is BEFORE we were married. 

I’m generally a cautious person, and I’d like to practice for about 17 or 18 years before getting out in front of an audience. And now we had a gig, and the pressure was on, and we worked harder, smarter, and faster to be ready for it. And we did an amazing job, and the crowd loved us. 

She would also pick a song she heard on the radio, and tell me on a Sunday, hey, I’m gonna sing this song at the show on Friday, so you should learn it. Dang. Okay. 

She pulled me out of my comfort zone. Ten years and two kids later, she led a life of doing that. She decided she wanted to get her Ph.D., and she just plowed forward with only the inkling of a plan, and we just made it work. 

She submits ideas to conferences, to do her own seminars, and doesn’t write the seminar and sell it. She sells the idea, and when it’s accepted, then she writes the seminar. She says, “Why waste the time to write the whole thing it before it’s accepted?”

I am grateful daily that my wife had and still has this attitude because in the past two years I adopted it – and it has literally, and meaningfully changed my life. I was talking to a friend about my personal development journey, and he said, “Matt – this is amazing stuff. I need you to speak at a conference I’m putting on in three weeks. I have to look at the schedule and see where I can fit you in, but I’m going to make it happen.”

In the past, a frog would have formed in my throat – and I would have said, “I’m not ready. Tell you what, I will start writing a speech, and I will speak at your conference next year.” Then I thought WWJD – what would Janelle do – and I said, “Miguel, I’m IN!”

And I jumped out of my comfort zone, onto the stage, and I met some people, and those people introduced me to other people, and my life is where it is today. 

One of the quotes I live by is from Hugh Laurie, the lead in the show House, in an interview he said, “It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

I ask myself every day, “What am I scared of that is keeping me from doing something that I do?” Is it fear of rejection, embarrassment, failure? What are the fears – whatever they are, that’s my road to the next place. 

I want to know what is holding you back from getting out of your comfort zone – let me know in the Ideas and Concepts Mastermind group on Facebook – I’ll put the link in the description – the group is growing daily, and I’ll make sure that myself or someone else in the group gives you some attention and resources to get out of your comfort zone and get into the adventure. 

Thanks for listening to the Second Mix Podcast, once again, I am Matthew Bennett. You can grab this transcript on the blog at secondmix.net. If you have any questions send me an email at matt@secondmix.net, I personally answer every email I get, and I want to talk to you! Please give me 5 stars whenever and wherever you can subscribe to get notified about the latest episodes – and if you haven’t yet, please leave me a really nice review.  If you know anyone who might find this information helpful, please tell them about this show – I do this to help people.  I’m gonna be here every Monday and Thursday until ______

Take steps that will make your week incredible.  I’ll be back on _________ –  this weekend continue reflecting, revising, and remixing your life. I’ll see you soon!