Don't get too comfortable

Happy Tuesday Friend,

A few months ago I attended a conference for online business owners and marketers called Funnel Hacking Live. I had heard it was a good one, so months beforehand, I bought tickets for myself and a few of my team leaders.

But when the time got closer, I started dreading it.

Has that ever happened to you?

Something sounds good in theory, so we say yes, but when suddenly faced with the reality of what it actually means, or what we’ll have to do, or how uncomfortable we’ll feel, we just want to crawl back in bed and hide.

Or something like that.

I could just picture all the cringy bro marketers trying to one-up each other at the bar. I was certain there wasn’t anything I was going to hear that I hadn’t heard a million times before. And I dreaded the thought of spending three days packed in a loud conference room with 5,000+ people.

And I almost bailed.

Since several of my team members were planning to attend the conference, we decided to make the most of our travel time and meet as a team for a couple of days beforehand.

Then, while we were meeting, I got a call from my husband letting me know that our youngest daughter had fallen off her bike and gotten a concussion.

And let me tell you, every bone in my Mama Bear body wanted to get in the car right that second and head back home to take care of my girl.

How could I even think about going to a conference while my girl was hurt?

That’s what I told my team, anyway. 

Luckily, they didn’t buy it. In fact, they saw right through me.

The truth was that I was ready for any excuse not to go. 

The thing is, my husband has been a stay-at-home dad for ten years. He’s the one who normally handles bumps and bruises and doctor’s visits. He’s very capable. Annie was fine and in good hands.

So, out of excuses, I went.

It was so much better than I could’ve ever imagined.

Yes, there were still too many cringy bro marketers trying to one-up each other at the bar, and yes it was three days packed into a loud room with 5,000+ people, which is a lot for this introvert.

But I was totally wrong about what I would learn.

There was so much content that blew me away. New stuff, yes, but also things I had heard before explained in new ways that hit differently.

It was exactly what I needed to light a fire that I didn't even realize had almost gone out.

The past few months I've worked longer and harder than I've probably ever worked in my life. I'm up at 3am most mornings, even on the weekends, and keep going until dinner time. I don't know where the energy is even coming from.

It's almost like 4 years of pent-up content has come pouring out of me, and I'm SO excited for all the stuff we have happening across our different brands.

In December, I hosted a 5-day challenge called Ignite Your Best Year Yet, and it was some of the best, most impactful and vulnerable work I've ever done.

Over at Thinlicious™, we’re working on developing a brand new APP that will make following our weight loss program so much easier and more convenient. It’s been a ton of work but I seriously can’t wait to get into people’s hands.

And at EBA®, we’re in the process of launching a WHOLE NEW PROGRAM called Powerhouse that is going to be so freaking good I can hardly stand it.

Even this newsletter is a direct result of the inspiration from that conference.

And I guess that’s my point. 

Because you wouldn’t even be reading this right now if I hadn’t attended that conference. It was a turning point.

But truthfully, I think we all have those moments in our lives—those opportunities to take a risk or do something scary or to put ourselves out there in a way that feels uncomfortable.

And it’s easy to say no when something feels scary or hard. It’s easy to look for an “out” or to come up with an excuse, even one that feels legitimate.

But even a good excuse is still an excuse.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Along those same lines, Brené Brown more succinctly noted, “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. But you cannot have both.”

In other words? The best growth always happens outside our comfort zone.

There’s so much more I want to share with you about this topic, but I’ll have to save the rest for Part 2 next week!

But for now, the challenge I have for you this week is more of a question: 

What scary or uncomfortable thing are you avoiding right now? What’s the thing you’ve been avoiding that might be necessary to get you to where you want to go? What excuses have you been making?

And what would happen if you decided to do it scared?

Just a thought.

Live with purpose, friend, and have an amazing week.

xoxo, Ruth

This week’s podcast episode…

What’s cooking in my kitchen…

I’ve been sharing a lot of really good recipes lately on social! Just in case you missed the ones from this past week, here are the PDF download links:

The latest from my Instagram…

One of my goals this year is to be more consistent on social media, so I’ve committed to sharing at least one post a day on Instagram. If you’re there, I’d love to connect with you—find me at @RuthSoukup

ruthsoukup

View more on Instagram

What’s Happening Around RSO…