My mom (rest her soul, and an old soul at that) always used to say, “If you’re going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk.” So many meanings are coming to me in this moment about that saying.

My first thought takes me back many years to when I was in high school and university. I have always been a huge fan of comedy and from a young age I religiously watched Saturday Night Live and I always talked about doing stand-up comedy. It wasn’t until my university boyfriend (now husband) turned to me and innocently said with a hint of annoyance, “You’ve been talking about doing stand-up for a while now, are you ever going to do it?” At that moment it hit me like a ton of dwarfs, it became so clear that I either had to book an amateur gig or stop talking about it already. Shit or get off the pot, another one of my mom’s good ones. So I put together a routine, told all my friends and family to come out, I put on sparkle underwear on outside of my pants (tied into one of my jokes – I’m not completely insane), and I got my ass on the stage at Yuk Yuks. There were many wins that night:

1) I controlled my nerves enough that I didn’t shat my drawers and need a clean-up in aisle three!

2) I was proud of myself, I gave it my best despite a big internal voice telling me how much I had riding on this and playing the what if game, like what if you aren’t funny, what if everyone thinks less of you, etc. Often the worst case scenario we as human beings with our big brains tend to think of is nowhere near the reality of the situation. People actually laughed and I had a blast.

3) I got to keep talking about that night and others where I got up on stage. Getting outside of my comfort zone and experimenting with my passion for comedy on multiple stages and being vulnerable in front of audiences is still to this day the stories and memories that I call upon when I need courage.

This saying has a lot of meaning for me in the here and now. I have embarked on a coaching journey and I truly love the work that I do. I am amazed at how much my clients inspire and motivate me. No doubt it’s easier to encourage others to leverage their strengths and internal resources to put one foot in front of the other to get where they want to go than to do it myself! So I have a choice:

• I can live in my comfort zone and tell others to get outside of theirs

Or

• I can walk the walk

I choose to not walk but dance outside my comfort zone because that’s where the magic happens. What are you choosing? What you have chosen in the past doesn’t have to be what you decide today or tomorrow.

What are your typical patterns? Is there a book you want to write that never gets written? If you have some dream or some project that you care about that seems to be getting no traction – I ask you, what are you waiting for? I’m by no means asking you to stop dreaming; in fact, I encourage everyone to dream as big as possible. What is one thing you can do to move yourself forward and towards a goal? Take one step.

I have been talking about writing a blog now for months and I held back because I was overthinking it and wanting it to be perfect. I was motivated to get off the pot by a client of mine struggling with the same thing who committed to simply putting the content out there.

Let’s celebrate your step(s) forward, share your comfort zone triumphs.

Get out there kick some ass and most importantly have fun!