It's All About Change - No If's, And's or Butt's About It

It's All About Change - But, But, But ... Get Off Your Butt About It!

Change means adapting, finding what doesn't work, what does work, and then applying something new to what doesn't -- maybe just to see what happens.

Change means getting out of your comfort zone, because it's a dead zone, like the dead zone of excuses.  And a dead zone is a dead life.

I recently discovered just how deadly my comfort zone had become -- it was running, and thus ruining, my life, and I didn't even know it.  The familiar had become a unhealthy, but known quantity that crept up on me.  It was a huge dichotomy -- comfort was creating a big pain in my butt, and I had gotten so used to it being there, that I just kept sitting on it unconsciously, complaining day-after-day -- a knee jerk reaction to life's unwieldy circumstances.

Pain can be a comfort zone, just like excuses, because it becomes familiar, like a bad friend who keeps calling to complain and out of habit you answer the phone, as much as you hate the interaction.

Let the pain in your life go, it's ultimately high maintenance.  Try something new or different, take a risk just of for the heck of it -- just to see what will happen -- don't take yourself too seriously.  Maybe you'll be surprised.  Maybe you'll get rejected.  Maybe you'll find love.  But whatever happens, it will be new and move you up out of your current morass, or maybe it will just move your dead ass!  Whatever the case, it will be good for you either way.  It will make life an adventure, and worth living once again.

Payoff?  Your butt will stop hurting!

The Dead Zone - Intro to the Inception of this Blog!

Welcome to my blog! It's dreadful, I must confess... I've become a social media junky, almost over night.

It all started with a Twitter workshop a few weeks ago -- and blossomed from there. Before that, I said I would never Twitter. Who cares about what everybody's doing? How incredibly boring and stupid. And, I had forever written off Spacebook, Myspace, or Facebook (or whatever you call these silly friend site mediums) as just another lame crutch for the socially and emotionally retarded - I needed real PEOPLE!

But, I got on Twitter with my new friend Skeeter, who put together the great functional Twitter workshop, and I was hooked. Soon I was following other friends, and it was great to log on, and read all the tweets; it all seemed so much faster and simpler than e-mail. About the same time, someone kind of cool friended me on Facebook - (yeah, I still had an account set up -- I wanted to see what all the hype was about.) I definitely had this love/hate relationship going with the computer.

Enter Julie and Julia: The Movie - Thanksgiving night. I thought the story was fiction, a fun flick to showcase Meryl Streep. WRONG! True story, enter great blogging, and healing, and personal growth. Too bad Julia Child didn't see it that way.

Now, I am an expert in the arena of writing and healing -- wrote a master's thesis on it. But, that was about private trauma journaling. In my mind, public blogging smacked of major narcissism - a malady of our modern day Me, Me, Me culture. So... after seeing the movie Julie and Julia -- I was pretty impressed, Julie took a huge risk and it paid off...a blog, a project, a movie and book deal - a new life.

Now I get into reading blogs online (some of which I will share with you soon).

Still, I hadn't thought of blogging myself, until the other night, when I entered the "Dead Zone" with a few friends. Let me explain.

I went out to hear some acoustic music with friends. The musician never showed up. No phone call, no explanation - nothing. The night soon degenerated into a monumental dead zone of excuses. No one wanted to drive the 12 miles out to another cafe for music in a neighboring town. The reasons: "My Crohn's is acting up." "It's a bad night for driving, the weather's too bad." It was 6:30 pm in the evening, so I went by myself.

The whole drive out, all I kept thinking was -- what makes people decide to stop living, and start believing their own excuses? What happens to propel folks into living in what I call, "The Dead Zone of Excuses"? It goes like this: "I can't; it won't work; I'm too tired, too broke, too old, too young, etc.", to take risks, really live, and get out of my own way -- yadda, yadda, yadda.

It was a darn lonely drive. When I got there - the cafe was closed. Talk about a bummer, but never mind, it was a great night for a drive -- mild, balmy, misty -- I went grocery shopping at an unfamiliar Walmart -- got some great buys on my favorite Kashi cereal that's much higher priced out where I live. Then, I ran into the owner of the cafe!! They closed to spend time with family decorating for Christmas. "Good for them.", I thought, taking time off to be with family!

The whole ride home, I felt great; excuses hadn't ruined my night, and I suddenly realized I needed to share this experience! Yes, even BlOG about it. I got home and jumped on Twitter, to read all the tweets from my new friends (can't believe I'm saying tweets), then researched where the best blog sites seem to be. This one came up first-rate. Best tools, quick to put up, AND you can follow me, just like on Twitter.

So what I want to do now is hear from YOU! How do excuses keep you from really living? What are your favorite excuses? After reading this, how will you plan to stop believing your own excuses and get out of the Dead Zone? How do you plan to live your own unique version of Living Large?