Hello ,

Thanks to all who responded so positively to the launch of the weekly “An Extraordinary Minute with Robert White.”  Wisdom from others has always been important to me so it’s a real pleasure to share more of my favorite quotes and my thoughts about them … with you.

Last week I experienced a wonderful “first.”  Thanks to an introduction from friend Dorothy Gleason I presented some of my ideas on leadership to WBE, Women’s Business Executives.  It was my first exposure (no laughter at my word choice please) to an all female audience.

I shared with the group that when the hotel valet where the event was held learned where I was going, he gravely intoned “Good luck in there.”  I actually was initially a bit intimidated being the only male in the room; however it turned out great – these committed business leaders were gracious, engaged and great fun.

Our feature this month is another excerpt from my book, “Living an Extraordinary Life.”  A friend (and reader) suggested that I share a few ideas from the book both for their potential value and to entice you to buy the book!

Be extraordinary!

Robert White
Robert@ExtraordinaryBook.com

An Extraordinary People International monthly eZine dedicated to assisting people in living extraordinary lives and creating extraordinary organizations.

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In this issue:

• Our Feature Article: Your Uncomfortable Comfort Zone
• Extraordinary Wisdom Quotes of the Month
• Rave Recommendation
• Need a Powerful, Engaging Speaker for your next event?
• Extraordinary Living Action Steps

In the heating and air conditioning business, they’ve come up with a descriptive term that is also a powerful metaphor for risk avoidance.  The area on the thermostat in which neither heating nor cooling must operate – around 72 degrees – is called the “comfort zone.”  It's also known as the “dead zone.”

All of us have areas of life that we will not enter and boundaries we will not move beyond.  For even the most adventurous of us, that is perfectly normal.  It could be the high altitude mountaineer who is unwilling to ask a woman out to dinner.  Or the cool stunt man who risks his neck every day and yet is terrified to speak in front of a group.  (Surveys consistently show that public speaking is the biggest single fear of most people – death comes in at fifth place on the list.)

Our comfort zones are natural, and they help us survive, yet they are misnamed because they are not truly comfortable.  More accurately, they are just “habit zones.”  The big problem with living in one's comfort zone is that we know at some level there is more to life than our present experience.  The trouble is, we don't want to risk going out and getting that something ‘more.’  By not going for it, by not jumping out of our comfort zone, we create a chronic low level of frustration, mediocrity and discomfort.  Staying firmly in our safe routines – our so-called comfort zone – is not all it's cracked up to be.

Think about it.  If life in your comfort zone is safe but often tedious, and if you feel there could be a lot more to life if you could just go for it, then what is holding you back?  If you are living in a free society, not in prison or dire poverty, if you are not shackled in chains and are of reasonable intelligence, then what is preventing you from breaking out of your comfort zone and doing what you really want to do?  If you’re like most people, what you say to yourself is: “I don’t have enough money,” or “My partner won’t approve,” or “It’s too late to start,” or any of a thousand other excuses.

In fact, what is actually getting in the way of you jumping out of your comfort zone?  From my experience, it’s only one thing: fear of risking.  Fear based on limiting beliefs.

When we use the term, “limiting beliefs,” it sounds rather abstract and artificial, like some kind of conceptual barrier.  As a result, you may imagine that surpassing or going beyond your limiting beliefs is an easy task, requiring merely a little thought and reflection.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The life or death stuff called beliefs

Imagine that you’re three or four years old, and you wake up in the middle of the night.  It’s dark, and you’re alone.  You call out for your mother, but no one answers.  You start to cry, but still no one comes.  You begin to scream and wail, but it’s pitch-dark and you’re all alone and no one comes to pick you up.  You’re gripped by fear, the fear that you’ve been abandoned, that no one will ever come.  You rock yourself to sleep.  When you wake up in the morning, your mother’s there.  You had no way of knowing that she had just gone down the hall for a few minutes to start some laundry.  If this kind of thing happens repeatedly to you as a child, what’s the belief you’re likely to form?  Something like: “No one, not even people who say they love me, will come when I need them.  I can only depend on myself.”

How serious is this belief you formed on limited information?  It’s a matter of life and death.  And what kind of fear is associated with our bottom-line limiting beliefs?  The fear of death, the fear of not surviving.  That’s why breaking out of our comfort zone can actually seem life-threatening.  That’s why it invariably takes courage to break out of our comfort zone.  We have no way of knowing what's on the other side or whether we will succeed. 

What’s really on the other side is excitement, enrichment and growth – and, before long, another comfort zone to explore.

*** excerpted from “Living an Extraordinary Life” by Robert White.  More information and your signed copy is available at:

http://www.extraordinarybook.com

Our theme this month is getting out of our comfort zone, so here are a few of my favorite quotes on that subject.

I believe we’re all inspired by mastery … in thought, in sport, in work … mastery anywhere translates to uplifting our spirit and our sense of what is possible.  I recommend you take a quiet moment, turn on your speakers and watch this incredible demonstration of Chris Bliss’s art, skill and passion:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640&q=%22chris+b

The Extraordinary People team includes several engaging public speakers and facilitators with powerful messages – each unique in style yet all are grounded in Extraordinary People’s essential messages of awareness, responsibility and communication. 

They’ve appeared before audiences from 20 to 6,000, throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia and have delivered from 45 minute keynotes to 3 hour workshops to full multi-day seminar presentations.

Subjects for recent engagements include improving organizational culture, motivating diverse workforces, developing more effective leaders and our core messages about bringing focus, alignment and commitment to teams.

Call 800-659-1659 to discuss how your next corporate retreat, association meeting or club event can benefit from a program custom designed to entertain,  enlighten and motivate to action.  You can learn more about our team at:

http://www.extraordinarypeople.com/about/people/index.htm

This couldn’t be more simple and, as I always caution you, simple is not always easy!

Find something you fear … a communication you need to engage in and have been avoiding, a long delayed project completion, reaching out to a key prospect or customer …

AND DO IT !!!

Wishing you an Extraordinary Life and Extraordinary Organizations...

Robert White
Extraordinary People International
1461 S Ulster St
Denver, CO 80231Phone: 1-303-632-7744
E-mail: Robert@extraordinarypeople.com

http://www.extraordinarypeople.com

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