TEDx Talk is a motivative public speaking event that is available for everyone. Inspiring people is one of my dreams. This year, I decided to take a risk and talk about “Comfort Zone”. Basically, I tried to encourage everyone to get out of comfort zone and change their perspective of staying in their comfort zone. Here’s how I do it:
Did you know that the comfort zone is our enemy? My life before I turned 12 was ridiculous. I had never been anywhere new, I always avoided challenges and risks because I was desperately afraid of failing. I am sure some of you can related. In 2016, I began to realize that life always gives us obstacles and keeps throwing new challenges at us. This is an inevitable fact of life, what is up to us is how we respond to these challenges. Listen everybody, you’re here on this planet to try something new and open new doors not to stay in the same room. If you always limit yourself to your comfort zone, I believe you won’t be able to see what potential lies beyond your limits.
I’m sure that everyone has their own passions and goals. I did some research on how to achieve your goals and this is what I found out in goalcast.com:
- That’s the keyword here: moving
- Growth is about progress
- Progress is about movement
- Movement is about “stepping out of your comfort zone”
Achieving remarkable goals is impossible if we remain inside our comfort zone, a place that limits your growth and restricts what you are capable of. One of my goals is to become more comfortable being uncomfortable!
Colonel Sanders is also my inspiration. Have you ever gotten rejected and failed again and again? Well, I really want everyone to listen carefully about his amazing life story before he became a successful person. Everyone should know who he is. So Mr. Sanders is the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and it should be no surprise that Sanders faced many obstacles and failures. Here’s his story:
Colonel Harland Sanders was an ordinary man who worked so hard to become extraordinary. The first fear that he had to face was that his father passed away when he was six and he had to look after his two siblings. When he grew up, he worked as a laborer for the railway. But then he got fired, so he had to find another job. After that, he came back and moved to live with his mom and sold life insurance. Because he disobeyed the rules, he got fired again. This was a very hard thing to accept in life, but he didn’t give up. He worked at a petrol station until he was about 40. This was where his turning point in life came. While there are a lot of customers waited with sweat for him to fill gasoline for their cars, they lost their patience. Mr. Sanders came up with a very creative idea by making and selling fried chicken for them. He pushed himself so hard. Everyone loved his food and later on, people came to the station not for petrol, but for his chicken! So he decided to sell his idea to others. Guess what? He got rejected 1,009 times! This is not a fictional story, guys. He didn’t stop what he was doing, he didn’t stay where he was standing, he got out of his comfort zone and continued his journey. His company was sold for more than a million dollars, and now KFC is all over Phnom Penh and the world and his logo is everywhere. I don’t know what everyone thinks about him, but for me I think he deserves his reputation. I hope his story will give you motivation, courage and boost your confidence.
Moreover, a lot of things in your life require getting out of your comfort zone. I’ll share with you a few of my stories about this topic. On August about two years ago, my writing facilitator gave me 100 topics to write about and told me to write as many as I could. I didn’t like writing at all. My brain was always stuck, when I were trying to brainstorm ideas for my writing. I was stressed out and I almost gave up. Until I’m looking through the internet and I found something very interesting. It said “Don’t be afraid to take an unfamiliar path. Sometimes they are the ones that take you to the best places”. I stopped and thought for a minute and I realized and understood what it really meant. As you know that writing was not the path that I’m familiar with, so I decided to get out my comfort zone. I realized that stepping away from this familiar path helped me a lot, even if it was hard for me for the first time. Back to writing, I started to do it with passion. For one of my writing pieces, it took me about three days with quite a lot of mistakes, but I didn’t give up. I continued editing those into a masterpiece until I satisfied with it. I started to feel the joy when I do writing and since then, it become one of the favorite things to do in freetime. This was unexpected to me, but nothing is impossible as long as I continue to push myself of my comfort zone.
I can prove everyone how leaving my comfort zone made me a happier person again. Here’s another story about me hiking 8 kilometers at Kep. Walking 8 kilometers is nerve-wracking to me. I used to be the type of girl who didn’t really get involved in sports or even types of hiking. This was my first hiking trip ever. It was very risky while we walked through. I felt exhausted after that, but the fact was that I can truly wanted to hike again. Since then, I have loved hiking and running! See! Nothing is impossible as long as I’m getting out of my comfort zone.
Public speaking used to be one of my biggest fear. Before, every time I was speaking in front of a lot of people, I felt like I’m in front of monsters. I was always afraid that “What if I’m wrong” or “They are judging me and criticize me” This thinking limited me. The reason why I say that is because I didn’t GET OUT of my COMFORT zone. I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone by doing a lot of public speaking for many events and now I’m standing right here in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. That’s unbelievable, isn’t it?
These are such amazing turning points and experiences in my life. I hope that this speech inspires at least some of you. Last but not least, I want to encourage everyone who is listening to this speech to not be upset when someone rejects your work or when you fail to do something. Everytime you want to give up, I urge everyone to think about Colonel Sanders life. Always remember one thing:
“You won’t be able to succeed if you stay in your comfort zone”