Do it. Do it.

We were standing at the bathroom sink, brushing our teeth. My 4 year old looked at the index card taped to the mirror and spelled out the largest word she saw: “B - O - L - D. What does that say, mommy?” So we phonetically sounded it out. And than I told her that “bold” is another way of saying “brave,” and read her the whole verse: “In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold, with strength in my soul.” (Psalm 138:3) I looked at her and asked, “Are you bold or brave?” 

She answered: “Yes.” 

I saw an Oprah magazine last month (Sept. issue?) that had the headline “Your Comfort Zone.” The magazine as a whole did little to encourage you on how to find your own comfort zone. The main article was more about comfortable things (cashmere scarves, woolly slippers, etc.). However, in her small column “What Oprah Knows For Sure” Oprah talked about getting out of your comfort zone with Shonda Rhimes (creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, etc.) Shonda decided to embark on a year of saying yes to things normally out of her comfort zone, and:

“Result number one: Shonda's first book, Year of Yes. Result number two (the way more important one!): pure transformation. Shonda neither looks nor is the same as she was a year ago. She's lost 110 pounds. She's so much more engaged. As her book chronicles, saying yes to heretofore anxiety-making experiences like speeches, parties and media appearances opened up the world to her. Blowing out your comfort zone can be life changing.”

I’m not sure where my comfort zone is. Does any one know where their comfort zone is? Or mine, for that matter? I definitely couldn’t Google map it. It would be all like… Destination Not Found. However, thanks to our recent trip to Hawaii, I can google map a few places (the North Shore!) where I definitely wasn’t in any sort of comfort zone… so I created one! 

“Great things never come from comfort zones.” 

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” 

“A ship is always safe at shore, but that’s not what it is built for.”

“No risks, no rewards.” - Eccelesiastes 11:1-6

“Do not resist chances. Take them like vitamins.”

I intentionally spent the week in Oahu doing things that reached deeply into my storehouses of boldness and bravery. Not just for the adrenaline rush, but to remember what courage feels like. Really, I spent the week stretching, working out, and strengthening my risk taking muscles. 

I got on airplanes, I learned to surf from famous, professional surfers, I got my first tattoo(s!), and I ate and tasted local, interesting food I’d never had before. I explored a foreign land on my own. I rode in a tiny helicopter with no doors. I listened to pro surfers (and successful web professionals) who told amazing stories and talked about about taking risks.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and think of what could go right.”

“The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk more.”

“What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” - E.H.

“If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it.”

“You are far too smart to be the only things standing in your way.”

“Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterwards.” - Tina Fey

“Every thing you want is on the other side of fear.” - Jack Canfield 

“The biggest mistake you could ever make is being too afraid to make one.”

“Thinking here goes nothing could be the start of everything.” - Drew Wagner

“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” - Seth Godin

“Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.” 

“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” 

“You have this one life. How do you wanna spend it? Apologizing? Regretting? Questioning? Hating yourself? Dieting? Running after people who don’t see you? Be brave. Believe in yourself. Do what feels good. Take risks. You have this one life. Make yourself proud.” - Beardsley Jones

It was incredible. My risk taking muscles feel strong and empowered. Maybe it was just a bit of my pre-kids personality peeking out, but I felt more like myself. I remembered what it felt like to take risks and see the rewards, whether good or bad. (Um, it was much easier when I was a teenager and seemingly invincible). 

“It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at that line for the rest of your life.”

“If you are not willing to look stupid, nothing great is ever going to happen to you.” - Dr. Gregory House

There was the bad, but then… there was the gooood. After surfing, I had bruises on my ribs that made breathing painful, cuts on my feet that made me hobble for three days, and board burns on my knees that required aloe. But I learned to surf (!) and fell deeper in love with the ocean. After every wave, whether I stood up on the board or not, I went back for more till my arms screamed to stop. I rode into the waves, through them, and over them. I got attacked by them, beat by them, and then intentionally fell into them and let them hug me. I definitely plan on going back again soon and doing it all over again. 

“Take into account that great love and great achievement involve great risks.” - Dalai Lama

“With courage you will dare to take the risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.” - Mark Twain 

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.” - Ernest Hemingway

“I want to dare to exist and, more than that, to live audaciously, in all my imperfect, lumpy, scarred glory, because the alternative is letting shame win.” - Shauna Niequist

“What a terrible waste of life it is, to always take the easy path, to never know what it is to risk everything for what you love.” - Beau Taplin

As a now experienced risk taker, I highly recommend - no, I give you permission - to take some risks. It still counts if they are calculated. That’s totally fine. But take them. They make for better stories and better lives! The risks you take are the things you are going to look back on when you are older (and possibly unable to do so anymore). 

Of all these quotes I found on Pinterest, (sorry for the ones I couldn’t site or find the source), Eleanor Roosevelt’s is my favorite: 

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” 

Word, Eleanor.