What’s Outside of Your Comfort Zone?

If we know each other, or if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I deeply believe in the benefits of living life outside of your comfort zone.  I can tell you endless stories about why that is the case, but you might not have that much time… So here’s one:

A few years ago I went on a business trip.   At the end of a day of meetings we went to a video arcade, where we were divided into teams.  The goal was for each one of us to play the same games  and at the end of the night, the team with the highest score would win.

Instantly a tornado of emotions and thoughts began to spiral:

  1. The first one was RAW FEAR, fueled by the historical pain of gym class.  I was as “girly” as they came and was great at avoiding pain, sweating, and dirt!  So I was frequently one of the last to be chosen for any sport that involved those three elements.  (Big ouch!)
  2. The second was a deep desire to add value to the team, fueled by a fiercely competitive spirit.
  3. The third was a conscious choice to turn this into an adventure, fueled by my husband’s repeated requests to learn to enjoy some of this world.

6 Lessons From Change Ready Kids: On Life Outside of “Normal”

Do you know anyone that is struggling with a change in his or her lives right now?  Do you know any organizations that are in the midst of extreme change and sinking instead of swimming?  Are you aware that 3 of the top 10 Critical Human Capital Issues for 2013 are CHANGE related?

A series of events in our expat journey has convinced me that anyone that has grown up as an expat child has developed wisdom and skills that will help others navigate change.  So I asked a couple of friends to share their experiences.  (Special Thanks To:  Amy Murphy & Lynette Elrod Hudson for sharing their stories!)

After hearing their stories, 6 lessons stand out:

1.  Provide vision and stability in the midst of extreme change.

“When we moved to a new country, my dad would go ahead and scope things out and then come back with great stories of what he had found. Sometimes he would be gone a month or two as he started a new job and found a house and we finished that year in school, so when he got home we were just happy to go wherever it was to be together.”  Lynette

479757_10151689092104766_952536038_n2.  Form relationships with people based on their character, not the color of their skin …Or the shape of their face!

“The first time I realized that people of different races looked different was in 3rd grade.  (I’d been an expat child since I was two.)  I thought my classmate had a flat face and I asked, “Why?”  Amy

Outside the Comfort Zone: In Hot Pursuit of the Vision!

Change is growth.

Change is growth.

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This week I realized that it has been 8 months since we agreed to turn an unwanted opportunity into an adventure.  Today as I type this the last box has just been unpacked, the pictures are hung, and we’ve taken one quick spin around the compound on the Harley – celebrating that we are finally settled!

This weekend we shopped at one of the stores that we were in, on my first day here, causing me to reflect on that day:

  • Shortly after 3 AM the anticipated call to prayer blared from a speaker.
  • Once we were up we drove on roads that have lanes painted on them, however those lanes really don’t mean anything, as drivers simply drive wherever they want, whenever they want with no driving protocol or enforcement.  
  • As a woman – driving is not a wise option for me.  (It’s not a law, but you can get arrested if you do it!)
  • I was wearing my new black “cloak of invisibility.”  (In case you wondered, it is effective – as my husband quickly discovered how difficult it was to identify his wife when everyone is wearing a cloaking device!  Since that day we have wondered how small children learn to identify their mothers in a crowd and joked that perhaps I should add a huge Harley Davidson decal to the back of my “cloak” so he can spot me in a crowd!)

Is Your Authentic Self: A Clark Kent or A Superman?

Your Authentic Self, A Clark Kent or a Superman

Do you remember watching Clark Kent jump into a phone booth and then emerge as Superman?  Kal-El was Clark’s real name, but because he was an alien and thought he would not be accepted, and at risk, if he allowed others to see who he really was…   He adopted an alter-ego to protect himself.

When we watch him on the silver screen we wait in anticipation for him to jump into that phone booth and emerge as his authentic self!

Bringing passion, strength, justice and intense awe to everyone that he come in contact with!

After reading a recent post by Terri Klass emphasizing the need for leaders to take off their masks, a previous co-worker came to mind. 

She had been hurt many times throughout her life, so much like Kal-El, she had come to the conclusion that she needed an alter-ego to protect herself.  (She just reversed the process…)  Instead of jumping into the phone booth to unleash her greatest gifts she would jump into her phone booth before she came to work to cover them up.  When she got to work she struggled to understand why she could not connect with her peers.