Uncomfortable? Good!! Go Anyway

Last week, I did two things that terrified me.

I showed up for the Oxford University Development Squad rowing program. I am more than twice the age of everyone who tries out (my own kids are older than everyone there). The next day, I went to choir practice. I am tone deaf. I genuinely cannot sing.

Both times, I didn’t want to go. I had no business being there. Both times, I went anyway.

The whole time, the same voice played on repeat: “You don’t belong here.”

Here’s what I know about that voice: it isn’t telling the truth. It’s telling you where your edge is. And your edge is the exact address of your next breakthrough.

For over 25 years, I’ve watched high performers wrestle with this same pattern. The discomfort you feel when you walk into a room where you don’t fit? That’s not a warning sign. That’s a growth sign. Your nervous system is simply doing its job, protecting you from the unfamiliar. But the unfamiliar is precisely where expansion lives.

Courage doesn’t feel like courage in the moment. It feels awkward. It feels embarrassing. It feels like everyone is watching you fail in slow motion. Yet on the other side of that feeling is a version of you that is bigger, bolder, and more capable than the one who walked in.

It is highly unlikely that I’ll make the rowing program…this year. But I’ll work my ass off and try again next year. And yes, I was wildly off-key in choir. So I signed up for singing lessons. I’ll be back next school year, better than before.

Reflect on that. Let it guide your next step.

That’s the whole game. You don’t have to be the best in the room. You just have to be willing to be in it and willing to grow once you leave.

So here’s my question for you: Where is your comfort zone asking you to stop, and where is your growth asking you to begin?

Reflect on that. Let it guide your next step.

Warmly,

gina 🙂