“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
This quote would have scared the crap out of me most of my life, I was the child that felt safe in my regular routine. I liked the comfort of being home with family, the routine of school and family life day in and day out. I wasn’t one to push the limit or boundaries. I was more than content in my safe little bubble. You didn’t find little Mackenzie daring to jump off the roof wearing a superhero cape that’s for sure!
Now I see this quote and it jumps out at me, it resonates with who I am today. Now don’t get me wrong, I still like my home comforts, and you won’t find me bungee jumping of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a Saturday night. I have however, come to see that ‘living‘ is not ‘living‘ when you don’t take chances, and especially when you don’t follow your dreams
There were times I followed my dreams and took chances, only I dipped my toe in to test the waters first and then slowly eased myself into things, rather than just diving in. Maybe that is the sensible way to do things, but for me I found that it stopped me following through on my dreams. I would start easing my way in, be freaked out by something and then jump back out of the water before I could drown. The problem is I never gave myself a chance to float, let alone swim. What if I didn’t drown? What if I hadn’t failed? I gave up too soon before I ever had the chance to find out!
I can’t change the way I was, I can’t go back and dive in now, but I can learn from who I was. Now I am not saying I wasn’t happy, on the contrary I have lived a great life, full of amazing memories, but if I am being honest there was always that part of me that wanted more. The part of me that was trapped inside begging to be let loose. The kind of crazy, fun loving, daring side of myself that I was afraid to embrace. This other part of me scared me. She was too daring, she would take a risk, and what if she failed, what if I failed? I couldn’t cope with failure! Failure was scary, and it was not going to happen to me.
Only problem is, it was my fear of failure that was stopping me from succeeding. One of my biggest fears was allowing myself to ‘just be me‘. To let people see the real Mackenzie. This was linked in strongly with my writing, because if I allowed myself to write I was allowing people to see the real me.
It might sound strange to you, but to me writing this blog is one of the bravest things I have done. I have parasailed, ridden an elephant through the jungle, mountain climbed, swam with a stingray, but writing for me is by far the most terrifying. Why? Because it is me at my rawest, it is me being honest and open with the world. It is me sharing my deepest emotions in front of anyone who wants to read them.
Putting yourself out there for the world to see opens you up to criticism. It also allows people into your soul. It is one thing for me to bare my soul to people I have never met, but knowing that family, friends and acquaintances read it makes me more nervous. I was scared that it would change how people saw me, and obviously not in a good way. But maybe that was because deep down I was scared of who I would discover? If I let the inner me out, what if I didn’t like what I saw?
Writing, whether it is on a public forum or just in your own private diary, forces you to be honest, it forces you to really look at yourself in the mirror and decide if you like the reflection of yourself that is being revealed.
Sharing your writing allows others to see that reflection, hence this blog is a true reflection of me. Writing for me is comfort, but sharing it is not in my comfort one. Even now I still feel that way. Each time I hit the ‘publish‘ button I am nervous, I worry what will people think of me. I am still not living in my comfort zone when it comes to sharing my writing. But that’s OK! It is OK for me to push myself out of my comfort zone, and it is OK for you to do so also. I truly stand by the above quote everyday now. We are not living if we are not following our dreams, pursuing our passions because we are fearful of failure or what others will think or say.
This is our life to live! These are our dreams to follow!
Push yourself out of the comfort zone, live on it’s edge. Trust me, the risk of someone judging you, or you not liking what you find is not worth stopping you from living a fulfilled and happy life! If you have a dream follow it, live the life you wish for and you might even discover you like what you find out about yourself, I know I did.
Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx
15 comments
That’s one my favorite quotes but I never knew who said it.
I know it’s great!
Taking chances can be scary but the rewards can be great, when i meet my wife to be who lived in another capital city, my best friend said to me why are you moving away from Melbourne which you live so much, what if it doesn’t work out with this girl, my answer was, well i will just come home, this was the best chance i ever took and ever since then my wife and i have taken many chances and been judged heavily for alot of them but i can tell you a couple of things have not worked out as we planned but the majority have and i wouldn’t take any of it back to live a safe life without chances.
Take the plunge, have a go, you will be amazed how good it feels.
So true Paul, and yes people will judge but it’s your life and only you know what feels right for you, thanks for some great feedback
I can relate ot this quote too. I stay in my comfort zone a lot, but when I move out of it, life allows me to take chances. I have had a few very negative experiences with taking chances, particularly when I moved into independent living. This is wha tis keeping me from taking the leap and going to live with my husband.
I nodded my head all the way through reading this. We are so similar, thus the ‘reflections’ concept that runs through everything we do 🙂 Thanks for your support this week. You were there right when I needed it.
I will always be here for you xx
You rode an elephant through a jungle? Way cool! I nodded my head all the way through this, too. Oh, I used to be so adventurous, but motherhood swallowed me whole. I’ve been in a comfort zone for a long time, making some strides at stepping out of it, though, this year, with my blog. As you said, blogging does expose your soul. I’m ok doing that with total strangers, but now friends and family and even a few neighbors have caught wind of it, and that is when it starts to feel like “Oy!” It feels different now when I take a walk through the neighborhood with my dog, Oscar, and wave hello to those particular neighbors who have subscribed to the blog. It just feels kind of weird that they do know a little more about my soul.
I totally know what you are saying, it is different blogging to strangers isn’t it? There is a freedom with knowing that you can write whatever you like. But when people you know subscribe it is a whole different world and it takes time to feel comfortable with that. It is also lovely that they like our blogs enough to subscribe. Thanks so much for your thoughts xx
Life does begin the way you say… I have to push through all my comforts to make my blog a success. I could not have a happy life and blog and achieve to provide for the family if i just sat back and chilled in bed all day as the doctors often suggest. Also if we never try anything new we wont go very far.
angela from daysinbed.com
I love you attitude, you are an inspiration
This is an incredibly motivating post! I agree that if we just dip our toes in the water instead of diving in head first, we take the chance of missing out on something that could be incredible! By the way… you’re a fabulous writer, and I think it’s natural to question whether your readers will like your blog posts. I definitely do! Thank you for linking up with #candidcuddles! xx
Thank you so much for saying that, what a lovely compliment it means a lot xx
What a deep & thought provoking post – well done! I was nodding along in agreement. Putting yourself out there really does make you examine who you are & it can help you improve! It’s wonderful to be able to take those risks & grow. Thanks so much for linking up with #candidcuddles. Tweet me for the next Friday Reflections & I’ll link up 🙂
Thanks, and I would loe you to link up, here are the prompts for this week
Writing prompts for 31 July 2015 –
• What are you obsessed about right now?
• Imagine you are 80 years old. Write a letter to your younger self.
• Reflect on the best advice you ever received
• Reflect on the following quote: “Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe.” ~ Susan Cain
• Bonus prompt: Look back over the previous prompts and choose to write about one you haven’t written about yet.
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