367 Getting Uncomfortable Makes Me Comfortable | January 2018 Tuesday Week 1

Tag Me Tuesdays-#358  January 2nd The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast Getting Uncomfortable Makes Me Comfortable "Personally, I like films that make me a little bit uncomfortable because I think you're uncomfortable when something is real." ~Alice Englert It was New Year’s Eve, and it was about 9 or 10 p.m. I was thinking about all the podcasts I had to prepare for the week, as I’m behind a bit. During the weekends I like to brainstorm, script, edit, finalize and populate all I have to do for my podcasts; so that I’m a week ahead which helps me to feel more comfortable that I’ll be on time for all of them. To me, it feels kind of surreal that I was able to put out 365 consecutive podcasts in a year without missing a day. In fact on Sunday’s podcast, the last day of the year, there was this weird feeling that came over me…the feeling of pride in the sense of accomplishment in following through towards a goal.   I want to be real with you…yes this is a simple 5-10 minute podcast…and while it’s simple…it isn’t easy. It takes time to sit down and think about what would be good topics to talk about. I then will write out my thoughts on it…and sometimes that comes quickly, and sometimes I’m staring at a computer screen for hours feeling like I accomplished nothing. After I get all my thoughts down, I then will record the podcast. I make mistakes while recording, so I have to go back and edit what I said. I then convert the edited file into an MP3 file. After that, I create ID tags so that when the file plays on your radio, phone, computer—it will show you the title correctly and the artist. I then load the file onto a server to hold all my podcasts so they don’t slow down my site, and I’ll fill in all the blanks of the script and any other information or pictures that need to be associated with that upload. And then I will schedule that podcast file to come out on a specific day and time.   But I’m not done yet. I will then create the affirmation card in photoshop, and I’ll arrange the affirmation words around so they look nice in the picture. I’ll save multiple files of the picture for posting and editing purposes. I will then create a blog post for my site, and I’ll put everything in the post from the MP3 file, the picture, the script, and anything else that needs to be populated into the blog.   Then on the day a podcast is published for you to listen to, I will go to all my social media accounts and send the picture out with an excerpt from my script….every day.   The reason I told you all of this was not to make you feel sorry for me or to be wowed by all I do in getting the podcast ready for you to listen to. I wanted to show you the time I put into this. Sometimes it flows easier than others, and sometimes it doesn’t come as easily. Sometimes it takes only a few hours, and sometimes it feels like it takes a whole works week of hours.   And I put a lot of self-imposed stress on myself during this process, wondering if I can keep creating new ideas and publishing it day in and day out. And on New Year’s Eve, I was particularly feeling the strain of being behind because of taking more time for myself during the holidays.   So as it was 9 p.m. on New Years Eve night, I was sitting in front of my computer distracted knowing I needed to create new material for this coming week. But I was also distracted by wanting to watch the movie McFarland on television and zone out. Kevin Costner is my favorite actor. Anyways, so I tried to do both…unsuccessfully. Since it was New Year's Eve, fireworks were going off all night from 8 p.m. on as people were celebrating the coming of a new year. One of my dogs Rusty gets anxious when he hears fireworks, and he’ll lay in the bathroom as he feels it’s safer in there.   I felt this guilt inside me with him being alone in a dark bathroom, so I decided to take a break and just sit on the floor with him and comfort him. I could feel my mind wanting to scold me telling me that I had deadlines to meet. And I could feel myself saying I had more important things to do…which made me stop and really question what was important??? And even though it was only in my mind I found myself saying back to that thought… “that’s a really crappy thing to be saying.” I knew the podcast would be there anytime I wanted to come back to it…and right now this was a time to be with my good buddy Rusty comforting and letting him know it was ok.   The conversations that happen in our minds sometimes have us questioning, if we really are good people. But just because we think something, doesn’t mean that’s who we are. Our thoughts and emotions aren’t in control of us…we just have to become aware of what we’re saying and thinking and then begin asking what we really want. And in this moment, the thought of actually saying that my dog wasn’t as important as my podcast was a wake-up call of what a stupid way I was focusing my thoughts and actions.   Here’s the fine line where we get stuck at times—we confuse what we think…with who we are. What I said was… ‘that was a stupid way of focusing.’ I didn’t say I was stupid or I was being stupid… I was focusing on the thing that wasn’t who I wanted to be; I was focusing on the stress and chaos instead of the love and calm in my life I wanted to focus upon.   And so I took a deep breath, gave Rusty a big hug and patted him for about 30 minutes as we sat on the bathroom floor enjoying each other’s company. As the fireworks died down a bit, I said to Rusty… “I think you’re safe now buddy…” like he could understand me. I then came back to finish up Monday’s podcast, and go to bed.   I needed to be aware to see the uncomfortable things I was saying, so I could find the comfort in how I wanted to think, how I wanted to act, and ultimately where I would keep my consistent focus. What you want in life, if it’s important, will take effort. If you’re willing to get uncomfortable, if you’re willing to do what others won’t, then you’ll find the peace and comfort you’ve been seeking. Comfort doesn’t happen in the easy; it happens by asking more of ourselves, by getting uncomfortable, and being real in what is truly important to us.   So are you getting uncomfortable in your life by being real…by becoming aware of what you’re really saying…and then seeing if it’s in line with who you really want to be? The greatest things in our lives are simple, but they’re not easy. It takes a commitment to creating a continual space of being uncomfortable within our lives…in a healthy and balanced way.   Today’s Personal Commitment: What have you been avoiding that’s important to you because you’ve been telling yourself is that the stress and chaos are more important to you. There’ll come a time when you’ll wish you acted differently and it will be too late. Will it will be the time when your relationship ended because you didn’t schedule time in to let them know their importance to you, or the time when a loved one passed away and you never let them know how much you loved them, or will it be that point of no return in your life as you spent so many years chasing after things that were shiny instead of asking what really mattered to you?   Get out a sheet of paper, and ask yourself what things are important to you…that you haven’t been paying attention to like you’d like to. This is not an exercise to make you feel guilty, but to awaken you to what matters to you. By me having Rusty in the bathroom scared, it woke me up to say, “what are you doing? Go be with your buddy and comfort him.” The podcast will be there anytime you want to come back to it. And by doing what was really important to me, hanging with Rusty for a bit, it actually was the break I needed to be refreshed to come back with new ideas. Which reminds me that we are rewarded by doing the uncomfortable, by doing what truly matters to us…in one way or another.   Getting Uncomfortable Makes Me Comfortable     Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide