{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Truth About Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone","description":"We shy away from sharing or expanding into what we have to offer in the most obscure ways. We think that getting out of our comfort zone means doing something big, which is exactly what keeps us trapped and doing what we\u2019ve always done.   Finishing up lunch with a client at a nice restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, I kept thinking about that beautiful basket of bread (that we didn\u2019t even touch) going into the trash. While a business lunch is perhaps not the right environment to request a to-go box for the bread, I found myself imagining the delight of handing it off to a homeless person on my drive home.   Fortunately, my image of giving outweighed my concerns about perception and I asked them to package it. Excited to hand over this generous helping of deliciousness, I started my drive home.   Of course, as fate would have it, I didn\u2019t see a single homeless person on my 20-minute drive home. Not one\u2026 dozens on the way there, and not one on the way home. Five minutes from home, I realized this bread was about to go into my trash\u2014or maybe to the birds, but still. My vision of giving was squashed and no one was going to have a chance to enjoy it.   Just as I was thinking about where I could go to find someone in need, I passed under a bridge where three men were doing construction work and thought, \u201cThey might enjoy the bread.\u201d Concerned about offending them, I immediately dismissed the idea and drove right past them.   My car decided not to dismiss the idea, though.   At the roundabout just ahead, my car (or God, if you prefer) took me all the way around the circle and back in the direction of the construction workers. Pulling over onto the shoulder, I said to myself, \u201cJust give them the bread and go.\u201d   \u201cUmm\u2026 excuse me guys,\u201d I got their attention, \u201cI was just at a restaurant\u2026 where they put gobs of yummy bread on the table\u2026 they were just going to throw it away, even though no one touched it. Would you like it?\u201d   \u201cWe would love it,\u201d they said, taking the bread from my hands and immediately tearing into it.   \u201cJust so you guys know, I talk a big game about doing stuff that makes you uncomfortable. I just did mine for today\u2014thank you for helping me out!\u201d   They laughed\u2014I laughed, and then I drove home. That was it. And that is it. It\u2019s the simple little steps we take in the direction of our goals and dreams that matter most. Sure, sometimes we have to ratchet up our courage to make significant progress, but it\u2019s mostly tiny doses of discomfort that lead to greatness emerging.   Giving doesn\u2019t have to be grandiose, and progress can be easily passed over when we get caught up in perfection.   Here\u2019s to your greatness,   Misti Burmeister   ","author_name":"Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister","author_url":"http:\/\/www.measurablegreatness.com","html":"