How to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Into Growth

Your travels have brought you to the Surfing

Your Edge podcast, where we explore what it

takes to create the bigger, bolder, badass life

you know you were born for.

Not a life that simply looks good on

paper, and not another spin on the self

-help hamster wheel.

If you're ready for more joy, more peace,

and more contribution, you're in the right place.

I'm Kristine Goad, the Surfing Your Edge coach.

Let's get surfing.

Hello, and welcome to episode 5 of the

Surfing Your Edge podcast.

Today, I want to talk to you a

little bit about my vision for why we

are bothering to do this, right?

Not everybody needs to have a podcast, so

what made me think that maybe I should?

So let's talk just a tiny bit about

what we've covered so far.

Surfing Your Edge, in the way that I

think about it, is standing on the edge

of where you are and what's possible, right?

It's standing a little bit farther out on

the edge of your comfort zone, and staying

there a little longer than you may want

to, so that you actually start to expand

your comfort zone a little bit more.

And the reason I think you should do

that is because there's a great quote from

George Adair that says, everything you wanted is

sitting on the other side of fear.

And I am not telling you that you

have to overcome your fear, because I really

don't think we do that.

I don't think fearless is a thing.

I think fear is there, and you do

it anyway, right?

So surfing your edge, in my world, is

a way of learning to make friends with

your fear, and really appreciating that it serves

a big purpose, right?

It's there to keep you safe, but it's

also there to show you the way forward

into growth.

And a lot of people treat fear like

it's a stop sign, when it's actually just

a sign that's saying, keep going, it's that

direction, you've got it, right?

So that is what surfing your edge is

for me, and why I think it's important

that you do it.

If you're here on this planet, you've got

more to do, right?

So instead of sitting here being afraid of

everything, and saying one day you'll take care

of that, one day you'll do this, I

would really love it if you'd take a

step toward it today.

So if you haven't yet taken that step

forward, we've also talked a little bit about

some of the reasons why.

There are internal reasons.

We've all been conditioned by the time we're

adults to start thinking about what our limitations

are, right?

We look more at what our limitations are

than what our possibilities are.

And the older we get, I tend to

find that becomes ever more true.

And you'll get those people who are feeling

like, oh, my time to do that was

20 years ago, I've lost my shot, I

can't do it.

We've also got people who are feeling like

they're not ready to take that step.

They may never be ready, right?

And that's the thing, we are never ready.

And if we are, we've waited too long.

You'll hear me say that again and again.

So obviously we've got all of these ideas

about who we are and how we should

behave and how the world works and how

things are done.

And we've internalized a bunch of those.

We've also got people out in the world

happily policing those boundaries for us, telling you,

oh, no, you can't do that.

That's not right for you.

You should do this, right?

That's one of the things that people love

to tell you.

Oh, you're interested in this?

Well, then you should do this.

And it's like, no, that's not what I

want to do.

I want to do this.

And we learn to make, I call it

reality sizing your dreams.

We learn to make smaller visions, right?

We're afraid to go for the big thing

that we really, really want.

So we bring it down several levels and

we go for something that's in the right

direction, but that doesn't really take us all

the way to what we want.

Oh, I've got to tell you something.

You know, I like to go on tangents.

And it's a tangent that we should go

on.

Psychology research is starting to show that it

is not the ideas you have about your

past that determine who you are in the

moment.

It's your ideas about your future, right?

What you think is possible for you is

much more powerful in determining how you're going

to behave today, the choices you're going to

make, the words you're going to say out

loud.

What you believe is possible, what you believe

is a true potential for you, that's the

power, right?

We think, oh, this happened and this happened

and this happened and I was raised to

be this way and my parents were this

way and that's why I am the way

I am.

And that is true, right?

We have been influenced by all of those

things.

But the true predictor of how you're going

to behave tomorrow or this morning or today,

whatever, is what you're thinking about, what you're

thinking is possible for you in the future.

If you think you're going to go surfing

with me in Panama one day, then, you

know, you'll be making decisions that lead toward

that.

If you think you're going to stay at

the job you're in for the rest of

your life and retire and, you know, sit

on the couch with your spouse and watch

television, you're going to be making decisions that

lead toward that future.

So, coming back to where we were before

that little side trip, I really hope that

you will come on this journey with me

because I love watching people's ideas of who

they are and what's possible for them explode.

And I am really good, actually, at asking

the kinds of questions that get you to

think a little bit differently and start to

open up what's possible.

I lead an annual event that's my Ignite

event and I routinely see people's minds explode

when they think about what is possible for

their year, what is possible for them to

aim toward.

And I would love it if you'd come

along and aim for something a little bit

more bold, a little bigger, a little badassier

than what you might have woken up this

morning thinking was in your future.

And the reason I'm doing this now is

because I feel like the world has sped

up and it is becoming more chaotic and

the things we thought were true are not

holding to be true.

The future that our parents had in their

minds is not the future they may have

instilled in us.

It's not the future that's unfolding.

And a lot of times, your first instinct

might be to stay small, to play by

the rules, to not ruffle any feathers.

And yet, if there are feathers to be

ruffled, I think now is the time to

ruffle them.

There are forces at play right now that

are...

I really do see, this is going to

sound crazy, but I really do see that

we are in a battle of light and

dark.

And the darkness, there is a part of

the world that is meant to evolve and

there are people who are still holding that

vision, who are terrified of the evolving.

And this is their last gasp, right?

This is their last stand, trying to hold

back the vision for the world that really

needs to come.

And I want you to be part of

the light.

I want you to be empowered enough to

recognize not only can you have the life

that you dream of for yourself, but you

can become part of the solution, right?

You may not have any clue what you

can contribute to the world's greater issues.

And yet, there is something in front of

you that you care deeply about.

And if you just took a few steps

toward making that problem a little smaller, and

we all did that, if we all stood

shoulder to shoulder, and we all just did

a few small things that mattered to us

individually, the whole world would shift, right?

I see the world's problems as fractals of

each other, right?

At the bottom of most of the biggest

problems on this planet is the fact that

we don't treat each other well, right?

We don't, that whole love your neighbor thing.

And when people aren't cared for, when they

aren't loved, when they aren't nurtured, then they

do dangerous, scary things in the world that

are driven by fear and anger and hurt,

right?

So it all comes down, believe it or

not, to having more love in the world.

And so poverty, racism, sexism, climate change, right?

All of it comes down to, they're all

just fractals of the same problem.

And we don't have to solve them all,

right?

We don't have to solve even one all

by ourselves.

But if we all pick the thing in

front of us that speaks to us and

just move forward in that direction, it comes

to like Mother Teresa, I think.

I don't know if these were her words,

but my idea of the way Mother Teresa

thought was that you do what you can

for who you can with what you've got,

right?

You start from where you are, you do

what you can.

And that's the movement I want to lead.

And if you have a movement in you,

even if you haven't yet defined what that

movement is, then I want you to come

and let's all be movement makers together.

And I know that we've gone from little

things, talking about things in our personal lives

to zooming all the way out to solving

all of the world's big problems, and that

can be a little overwhelming.

So let's bring it back down to the

personal level.

And just, I'd love it if you wanted

to take the first step with me.

I am creating a community for movement makers.

And I would love it if you would

join us.

Again, you don't have to do it alone.

We have got some of the most amazing,

heart-centered, brilliant, curious, wonder-seeking people.

And we would love to invite you to

come join us.

Check us out.

It's not a big commitment.

You can join for a month, you can

join for the year, whatever makes sense to

you.

So click the link below and join us

in the Surfing Your Edge salon.

And let's go surfing.