Welcome back. In this episode, I'm going to answer the question "Why get out of
your comfort zone?" Now, this is very important to learn when and why to get
out of what we call this comfort zone. Because so many times we go through life
and we just like to stay right here in this comfort zone and not step out of it.
But I'm going to share with you that I have never grown until I got out of this
comfort zone because that is where the magic happens. So, I'm Doug Andrew. And I've
learned this lesson sort of the hard way in life that when I was guilty of sort
of getting very comfortable in this zone. And not wanting to step out of it, I
began to realize, "Wow, in any experience in life,
good or bad, I only have grown when I got out of my comfort zone." Because as I
mentioned, this is where the magic happens. So, let me give you a few
examples of how to do this. And how to recognize opportunities that you may
want to seize in life even if it's a little bit uncomfortable for you.
Recently at my annual of grandpa's camp with our grandchildren, I decided
to take them on a hot-air balloon ride at 10,500 feet.
My wife is flown with me when I used to hang out to private aircraft. And she was
not comfortable in that little airplane. She likes to be in the big jets. But she
thought, "Oh, I want to go in this hot-air balloon at 10,000 feet." Because she's
been with me when there have been turbulence and lots of wind. But she got out
of her comfort zone. I was fine. Our two granddaughters who were with us that
morning, they were a little bit nervous but they have learned from grandpa that
you only grow when you get out of that comfort zone.
It was incredible as we begin to ascend to 7, 8, 9, 10 thousand feet. It
was so calm and gorgeous and beautiful as we saw areas of the valley in this
peaceful setting instead of zooming around in a helicopter or an airplane.
And at the end my wife goes, "Thank you for helping me get out of my comfort
zone and having that experience." She will never regret not seizing that
opportunity. So, a lot of people don't feel comfortable maybe getting up in
front of an audience and speaking. So, they resisted. And I learned a long time
ago even in high school that I had to get out of my comfort zone and stand in
front of a group of 5 and then 10 and then 25 people. And before I
knew it... Because I was sort of shy in school, in junior high. As I got into high
school, I began to take oratory and debate. People with young what? "Doug
Andrew is going to do that?" And as I began to get out of my comfort zone,
3 years later as a senior, I took state in oratory. If you would have told
me that I would take state in oratory 3 years earlier, I would have laughed
at you. In fact, do you know that a lot of my college professors, my English
professors in high school and college, because of the essays I would write and
they would... I'm sure just roll their eyes. If they knew that Doug Andrew today is a
New York Times Wall Street Journal number one bestselling author of now 11
books and so forth. They would go, "What? How did that happen?" Well, I'm going to
share with you a secret that I've learned to be able to recognize which
opportunities in life I'm going to seize. Which ones I'm going to delegate
and which ones I'm going to walk away from based upon "Is this opportunity
going to cause me to stretch to get out of my comfort zone?" But it must fall
within a certain element that I'll share with you now. Looking back in the decade
1990 to the year 2000. I have been helping people optimize their financial assets
for many years up until that point. And minimize unnecessary tax, people came to
me through what I call the financial dimension. But I knew I had a book in me.
In fact, probably several books. But I sort of announced this B Hag.
now that's B-H-A-G. I think everybody should have a B-hag. What does that mean?
A big hairy audacious gulp, okay? So I had this B hag to write a book. Oh, My heavens,
did I have naysayers. "What are you thinking Doug? What are you going to do?
Who's going to buy? Who's going to publish it?" And in fact, my son in law's father who
was over several book publishing companies, he goes, "Who's going to be your
publisher?" And I said, "Well, I think I'm just going to self-published." "Oh, really?" And
he said, "I did that once. I printed 500 copies. I still have 460 in my garage."
Well, that was helpful. I thought, "Well, okay. I'm just going to go ahead and write
this book and I'm going to do it in a conversational tone." I was a
perfectionist until I sort of got liberated from being a perfectionist.
I have another episode that I'll share with you. If you're a perfectionist, I'll
help you break that habit. Get out of your comfort zone and not
have to be perfect. What I want to share is as I begin to announce this B-hag
I was now committed. And even though my first book took me 10 years. I got out
of the comfort zone and I got it done. My next book took one year. The next one
took 4 months. It became a New York Times Wall Street Journal number one
bestseller. The next book took 36 hours. And now because I got out of my comfort
zone, I've written several books. And I can teach you how to write a
best-selling book in 36 hours. I have a whole course that
talks about that. The point is I would still be sitting there with this
manuscript with all this stuff on my credenza waiting for it to be perfect if
I didn't get out of my comfort zone and just do it.
Release it, print it. Say it, record it. Send it. So, I learned by doing that, I
sort of had to get out of my comfort zone and seize opportunities and
announce the B-hag. Guess what happened? When I first talked about it, I was at a
convention in Maui. And I was at the ritz-carlton there in Kapalua. This was
right after 30 days after 9/11 that terrorist attacks. Half of the attendees
canceled. They didn't want to fly or travel. The first evening of this huge
financial event, I was sitting with these gentlemen at a table and I was talking
about my B-hag. Because they said, "What are you excited about?" "Oh, I've got this
book and it has 23 misconceptions. And I'm so excited because I share the
strategies and all this." And they go, "Whoa! Wow, that's awesome. Would you like to be
a speaker at the million dollar roundtable?" I go, "Yeah, right." I mean, one of
my friends Mark Victor Hansen... If you don't know who that is, he's co-author
with Jack Canfield of all the Chicken Soup for the Soul stories. And had they
were turned down by I don't know how many publishers for that. And now, it's
the number one sort of franchise books in all the bookstores there's like 3
shelves dedicated to Chicken Soup for that calico male lover cat lover soul.
--books. I mean you name it. And there's a book about it. And they don't
even write the books. They just collect the stories and publish them. They had to
get out of their comfort zone. Mark Victor Hansen said my B_hag is someday
to be invited to speak at the million dollar roundtable convention. I wasn't
even the author of my first book quite yet. And these three gentlemen asked me
if I'd like to be the speaker. And I sort of snickered, "Yeah, right." And they go, "Oh,
no. I'm last year's president. I'm the chairman. Here's this year's present and
here's the vice president. And we can tell you're passionate. We would like you
to speak." Now, the key is when you get out of your comfort zone, the magic starts
happening. You could not convince me in a million years that if I had not
announced that B-hag, had been excited. Got out of my comfort zone and announced
that I was going to author a book. But that opportunity would have never come
to fruition. Because I was so blessed when I spoke.
They had the scheduled major ballroom. This was in Vegas. They said, "Oh, don't
feel bad if people are out in the casinos or eating at the buffets. You
might only get 30 or 40 people to come." Well, I put together 10 keys that would
empower them --the attendees. The ballroom held 1,000. They led in 1600 and the
fire marshals turnable turned away another 600. And my book sales went
through the roof. But what had to happen? I had to get out of my comfort zone and
seize an opportunity that caused me to stretch beyond. The first time I spoke on
the radio, I was nervous. But pretty soon it became natural. The first time I got
in front of a TV camera, I was very nervous until I just started doing it.
Now, it becomes second nature. I still have butterflies. I've learned
how to tame those butterflies by making those opportunities seizing them, getting
out of the comfort zone and the magic will happen for you too. Trust me. So, here
are the 3 takeaways that I want you to get: First of all, you will grow
greater faster by getting out of your comfort zone. Because that is where the
magic happens. Seize opportunities that will cause you
to stretch. But here's the third key: Whatever opportunities are out there,
seize the ones that not only cause you to stretch, get out of your comfort zone
but they are still within your unique ability. In other words, I'm not going to
go out there try to be a quarterback or play ice
hockey or do something that I'm not good at. That's totally out of my unique
ability. But if I have a little bit of a unique ability to be able to speak or to
take complex things simple, okay? I'm going to go talk to an audience, I'm
going to join Toastmasters. I'm going to start talking. And the more I do that by
getting more comfortable in front of an audience of a hundred, thousand, 2
thousand. On radio, on TV... Whatever it is that you're doing, take the time to look
at the opportunities. Which opportunities in life are you going to seize? But the
ones that will cause you to stretch. If you're doing the same old, same old stuff,
life gets boring. You want to continue to be able to have those ones that will
help you grow. And then watch the strategic byproducts. The magic happen as
you announce these and opportunities will continue to fall in your lap. And
you will look back 5, 10, 15 years and go, "Oh, My heavens. Look what has happened every
since I started getting out of my comfort zone and just going out and
doing it." Life is too short not to seize those opportunities. So, with this concept
has resonated with you, there are a lot of other related topics that I have
written about and shared very many YouTube videos and education. But I have
a book titled Entitlement Abolition. And in that book, I actually talk about how I
teach my own children and grandchildren, my employees how to seize these
opportunities and get out of their comfort zone so they'll grow. And so, if
you would like... I would love to gift you absolutely free, a copy of Entitlement
Abolition so click on the link here. And for a nominal postage and shipping
handling fee, you can obtain a free copy of Entitlement Abolition. Go through
there and zero in on how you can empower yourself and those you
about to get out of their comfort zones. So, if this is resonating with you and
you would like to learn a little bit more about how to get out of your
comfort zone and figure out which opportunities to seize, which ones to
delegate which ones to walk away from and empower those that you care about.
Your children, your grandchildren, your employees. I have a book titled
"Entitlement Abolition". And in that book, I explain this concept and I believe it
can empower you to be able to help those that you care about do the same things
that I've been talking about. So, click on the link below and I will give you one
absolutely free. You just pay nominal shipping and handling. And I will ship
went out to you and enjoy it and learn many things related to this particular
topic.