“My eighth rule of success,” the Interviewer says, “is to stay uncomfortable.” He’s talking about making choices in life, and not just staying in your comfort zone.
I’m listening to this podcast—the Interviewer and his two subjects on topics ranging comfortably from Buddhist practices to travel to the character of Canadians compared to Americans—because I’m nervously wondering what I’ve gotten myself into.
I’m wondering, in passing, what the Interviewer’s other rules are, if “stay uncomfortable” is #8… and also, I’m thinking that I must be succeeding like crazy right now, because I’ve just agreed to do something I’m completely clueless about. Our lives intersected (the Interviewer’s and mine) in the form of blog-comments, and next thing you know, I’ve agreed to go on his podcast. We’ve set a time for Monday, and he’ll email me a link. I realize I don’t even know what technology we’re using—am I talking on my phone? Or should I dig around and find that better-quality headset for my computer? I’m pretty sure I can rule out smoke signals, but that’s the only thing I do know about podcasting, if that can be said to be a fact about podcasting.
I used to be much more… glib… than I am now. I didn’t used to have to search for my words. I used to sift my vocabulary with ease, and on the fly, mining for that word with precisely the right nuance, without even breaking the cadence of my sentence. Now I can find myself scratching and scrambling to fill in a blank created by the disappearance of an everyday word. “Pancake,” say, or “toothpaste.” I will vote for any political candidate who promises to reverse the accelerating slide of words into slipperiness—because I’m by-gosh blaming the words, not my age!
It’s not a problem when I’m writing, because I can take those extra few beats to fish up the word I want, and no one can tell I had to pause for it. And I don’t care much in the everyday, because in general it’s not a big deal if I have to pause for some extra seconds to finish my sentence—or I work around it by describing that thing I’m trying to name. But I don’t want to sound like an idiot to the Interviewer’s audience by having to resort to work-around words like “toothbrush-sauce.” (My husband would hand me the Colgate without blinking—but then, he knows me very well.)
All that to say… I love the idea of being invited to someone’s podcast… but it’s surely something that’s not in my comfort zone…
…And now I’m laughing. I just took my hands off the keyboard and picked up my coffee mug… the side of which says “Have Faith, not Fear.”
Sometimes God just taps me on the head and says, “Hey. Bozo! Pay attention.” I’m feeling that, literally seconds after typing the words “not in my comfort zone,” the appearance of “not fear” on a coffee mug, (or rather, the suddenly-noticing of those words on the cup I use every day, and barely see anymore) is one of those hey-bozo moments. A reminder that, first of all, this is not earth-shattering stuff… And secondly, that God’s got my back, even on non-earth-shattering stuff.
Stay tuned…
Kana's Chronicles 
At worst it may be a humbling experience. But aren’t we supposed to walk humbly before the Lord? And we can’t walk behind Him… unless we’re following. Being that you have the right attitude, personally I think you’ll max it. 😊
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Thank you for the encouragement—and the reminder. :)
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“Have Faith, not Fear,” says it all. Good luck on the podcast!
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Thank you—I think I’ll have that mug right by me as a reminder. ;)
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About the rule #8, staying uncomfortable. I think there’s truth in it, but you shouldn’t accept to do things you are clueless about if you are not likely get good support. If you can ask questions and get guidance and help then it is fine. You will be uncomfotrtable but you’ll learn something new and you will most likely not crash and burn. But walking into a job you know nothing about without getting help is just dumb and uncomfortable. I am just speaking from my experience.
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And very wise that experience has made you! I think the REASON for moving out of your comfort zone is so you DO learn and grow—and questions are definitely the magic ticket to make those things happen. :)
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Yes I believe that is right. Thank you Kana.
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I pray that everything goes well and that it is all according to God’s Plans… God truly has a way of reminding us that faith is greater than fear, even in the small things.
And I love the picture, that is really awesome …
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My thanks for the prayer! The picture—I’ve been playing with the AI image-maker I wrote about the other day… I “fed” it some pictures of myself, and then wrote the whole description of what I wanted, and there you go! (It even actually looks like ME.) I’ve been having fun!! :D
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Reflection and clarity combined
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Amen 😇🙏🤲
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Interviews: “Back in the day” when it was likely to happen, I used to say the worst thing was to be quoted accurately; then you couldn’t deny it.” 😁
Some wise advice above. Growth is uncomfortable, but we should not stop growing.
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Trapped by your own words—is that what they’d call “hoisted on your own petard”? (Ok, that’s a familiar phrase, but I realize I’ve never actually found out: what IS a petard?? Oh, Google…?)
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I’ve never been invited on a podcast–and if I were, I don’t know if I would accept! I respect your trying this new, uncomfortable thing. As long as your interviewer is not combative, you should be OK.
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Happily, he was very pleasant and very easy to talk to… But I sure was nervous in those last few minutes before we went on the air! I can’t remember the last time I had nerves like that. ;)
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Glad to hear it, and I can empathize. I preach twice a year at my church; even though I’m a retired ESL professor, I remember being somewhat nervous at the pulpit the first time (3 years ago), but now, as soon as I start speaking, I’m fine.
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Good for you! You may enjoy it. I hope you post about how it went…good luck, or ‘in bocca al lupo’ as they say here in Italy.
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Thank you! It did go well, and I wrote about it in “Podcast Debrief” :)
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Great post. Thank you. Flows easily, well-written and interesting.
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Hi Kana, Opened my email and found you had subscribed to my blog, “The Spill … ” I’m honored being rather new to this online world. Seems like you’ve been around this block a few times so I read your post. Love it. I too am of the age where I have to reach for a few words from time to time, mostly adjectives in my case. Seems odd. They float away on a shy little breeze and then when I least expect it … sinister!, that was it! Anyway, I recalled this bit of wisdom you might like from A Course in Miracles … “If you knew who walks beside you on the path you have chosen, fear would be impossible.”
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“Fear would be impossible”–that’s lovely. It’s good to meet you! :)
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