Sweaty Palms

Back in November of 2011 my always outgoing and up for anything co-worker and friend came up to my desk one Wednesday morning and said, "Kelly! I just did something that literally made my palms sweat!" My immediate response was "You? Something made YOUR palms sweat?" Then, I thought to myself, "Gosh, I could go for some sweaty palms. I guess they never really hurt anyone." She proceeded to tell me about Toastmasters, a group that gets together every Wednesday to work on their speaking skills. The following week I tagged along with her for my first meeting and the rest is history.

Although I am no longer a member of this amazing group, I am still so thankful for this opportunity that popped up in my life and the courage I had to step out of my comfort zone. Not only have I made efforts in improving my speaking and writing skills I also met some incredible people. When deciding to join this group, I thought I would just get better at eliminating "umm," "kinda," "so," and other space fillers from my vocabulary. Well, little did I know how much more I would get out of this group. I learned more tips than I'll probably ever use about fishing from our fishing enthusiast, politics from an avid C-SPAN viewer, how to deliver a meaningful apology, how to train your puppy and other topics about each person's interests, our world, and the city we live in. By stepping out of my little comfort zone, I got much more out of this group than I ever expected and my life has been enriched in ways I couldn't imagine.

Now, it's time for me to get sweaty palms again. I'll be stepping out of my Minnesota comfort zone and heading south to Kentucky. Why would I move to Kentucky, you wonder? Well, for a boy of course. My boyfriend was offered a great career opportunity to coach baseball, and when you get those opportunities you have to snatch them up before they pass you by. While we talked, and talked, and talked, AND talked about moving, "What are the pros and cons? What about my job? What about the holidays and getting home? Will we have to move again?," I already knew in the back of my mind that there was no question about it. He would be silly not to accept this position and of course I would be right by his side going there with him. Knowing his profession when we first met, I always knew there was a possibility of having to relocate in order to advance his career but I still let him chase after me anyway. ;) Secretly though, I think that is one of the things that attracted me to him- our mutual desire to step out of our comfort zones and try new things. This move could either be awesome or we could hate it, but the only way to find it is to give it a try. I would much rather take this leap and fail going after a passion and dream then settle for the safety and security of our comfort zone. I can only hope that moving to Kentucky will be like joining Toastmasters-- a good experience but will get so much more out of it than I could ever imagine. So, with sweaty palms I'll pack up the moving truck, look for a new job and do some other scary things (maybe some new blog posts about those to come soon). Every time I have stepped outside that zone of comfort I have never looked back and have always been pleasantly surprised about the outcome. While I will miss my family and friends I am excited about the adventure that lies ahead. Sweaty palms never hurt anyone and they certainly aren't going to stop me. **If you are interested in joining Toastmasters or just going to a meeting to see if you like it, I highly recommend it. To see if there is club in your area check out this link: http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/

#fearless #comfortzone