Why YOU Should Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone!

Do you realize how beneficial it is to step out of your comfort zone?

Our comfort zone is a place that makes you feel comfortable, it may be a place for some of us to re-energize, but it is also a place that we stay in just because of the comfort it provides.  Without stepping out of our comfort zone we more or less just exist.  By staying in this comfortable spot we don't have a chance to expand in our personal life, professional life and in anything we do.  We don't get to experience the place that are intended for our growth.  That is right, by stepping out of our comfort zone we enable ourselves to expand into amazing places.

Honestly, for me, I am now conditioned to not stay in my comfort zone very often if at all….  I have learned that by pushing the envelope for me, is the wild and wooly place that I enjoy being in most! 🙂

BUT I also know how nerving it is for many people to feel comfortable in the place that my Mountain Man and I feel and call home.  I have learned this week that our Mountain Boy is joining us… ♥

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
― Muhammad Ali

I'd like to share a story with you of something that happened this week with the Mountain Boy.

Two weeks ago Thursday, the Mountain Boy and I headed to our church for the music practice for the Sunday services.  The Mountain Boy LOVES to sing.  He listens to K-Love and Moody Radio ALL the time.  When he hears a song for the first time, he is able to remember EVERY word as though he has heard it hundreds of times.  This is something that just comes naturally to him.

He has a great voice and sings all the time to me and to the animals every day when he is caring for them, HOWEVER…  With the Mountain Boy being high functioning autistic, being amongst a lot of people, being in the spotlight and certainly singing in front of people is not something that is comfortable or comes naturally!  It is actually something  that is VERY hard and VERY overwhelming.

The first Thursday, he just sat played his small hand drum and sang without a microphone.  He sang some fun songs that he knew well and was inspired to grab the microphone for the next song, only to find that they were finished for the evening.  Honestly, though, this in and of itself was incredible for him.  He was upfront, on the stage with people he does not know super well yet (we just recently started going to this church more regularly).

I also wanted to mention that the Mountain Boy has been driving on his permit since last summer and he is heading to take his driving test this Friday.  So keep him in your thoughts.  For autistic people it is very overwhelming also when you are having to do a lot of things at one time.  It is overstimulating and can be difficult.  He has been pushing through his struggles and barriers left and right and continuing to step autism into the ground!  So you may be able to imagine the depth of how overwhelming driving and then taking on even something more personal as singing in front of a crowd or with people he is not familiar with.  In his past, such a combination would have given him such great troubles and this week you would have never known….  He is taking it in stride and overcoming EVERYTHING!

So this Thursday, he drives us to the church and we head in…  He sits down, grabs his mic and he is ready!!!  I was totally WOWED!!!   So they started to sing and the pastor was actually surprised that he knew the first song as he sang his heart out.  I continued to watch and listen as they headed into the 2nd song to which he LOVES.  I look up and motioned him to just stand up and do it….  And he WOWED me again – he DID!!  It literally brought instant tears to my eyes as quickly then as it is now in writing this!  If you could have experienced our years together and understood just how BIG of a step this was for him!!  Oh – GOD is SO GOOD!!!  ALL THE TIME!!

I must say also that we are blessed in a church that everyone is so welcoming and it is a comfortable place to be.  He is very receptive to his surroundings and reads things better than anyone I know with the exception of the Mountain Man who kicks it up a notch, but he is comfortable and that means a lot!

I videoed him and took pictures so he could see himself perform when we got home.  It wasn't that he was just standing there with a microphone in his hands he was singing HARD, so hard that his veins were sticking out and he was closing his eye to Jesus!!  He was just totally ROCKIN' IT from his heart!!  It was something very wild to see and for those of you that know Austin, you also know how BIG of a step this was for him.  If only Mountain Cousin Jonathan was here to see him….  He would be impressed….  He would really know just how hard that was for him because the two of them on occasion would attempt to sing together and Austin was too nervous.

When we got out to the truck – I told Austin just how proud I was of him and he said it felt good and that he was able to do it because I encouraged him which, of course, made me tear up again!

Seeing someone step out of their comfort zone and accomplish something that you know they viewed as impossible is an incredible sight!

…with God all things are possible.  Matthew 19:26

No matter who you are, where you are in the world or the circumstances in your life, there is ABSOLUTELY NO reason why YOU can't reach your dreams…. The first thing you need to do is to take that first step OUT of your Comfort Zone and into your future!   You can do this!

In the Mountain Boy's own words he said it was such an exciting time.  The Mountain Boy also wanted to offer all of you some encouraging thoughts – JUST DO IT!

Try it today, How Are YOU Going To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone?