At any given moment, you and everyone you know, has an important choice to make: Will you play on the edge of your capacity or will you sit somewhere in the middle?

Your answer and subsequent actions will define the quality of your life.

Beware o’ the Comfort Zone.

Comfort Zones are dangerous regions where going through the motion-ness becomes a way of life.

In the Comfort Zone, our days are filled with unremarkable tasks, conversations and ideas. In this place, some of us seek cheap thrills in the form of addictions to food or sex or drugs to try to kill the boredom.

But after the binge, the orgasm, the crash, we are back. “It’s cool,” we tell ourselves, “this is just the way life is.”

Be honest with yourself.

I had a wake up call about two weeks ago. I was going about my work, as usual and my play too—and for some reason, I felt like I was in a fog: I felt tired, irritable, unmotivated and lost. And friends, that is just not how I roll. At this point in my development, I know haziness and lackluster are, themselves, crystal clear indications it’s time for a check in.

I meditated…haze and chatter smoked out my good intentions.

I yoga’ed and still nothin’.

I knew what I had to do.

I dusted off my journal and got to writing three pages of stream of consciousness that the revolutionary creativity leader, Julia Cameron, instructs in The Artist’s Way. And like clockwork, a page and a half in, the truth revealed itself in the form of this sentence:

Play your edge.

Of course! How could I forget? The fog lifted right then and there.

See, in my work I teach women to practice Radical Courage as a means to awaken—and, in this moment, I realized I was not living on my personal edge. While my current life would have seemed hugely courageous circa March 2012, now a year later, I am in a comfort zone.

The edge is constantly shifting.

Any yogi will tell you, the edge (the challenging spot between hanging out and hurting themselves) moves from day-to-day and certainly from year-to-year.

That afternoon’s discovery began to rekindle the love I have for the practice of constantly doing the thing that most scares me (yet calls to me like a siren).

Playing your edge is a thrilling-soul expanding-giggle inducing practice that instantly rewards the practitioner with life force and cool points.

Take it from the Poet:

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you’ll find something solid to stand on
Or you’ll be taught how to fly!”

~ Richard Bach

The President:

“Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.”

~ Jimmy Carter

The Philosopher:

“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

~ Seneca

Our comfort zone is the charted territory, see? The edge is just a little farther out yet, not so far out that you are flopping around in the dark.

The edge is where you pretty much know what you are doing but you knees are knockin’ and your palms are sweatin’.

We thrive in the midst of that adventure because is pushes us into our vast, uncharted, inner territory; it asks us to be awake & engaged. Playing our edge calls us to do what we were born to do: evolve.

Truth or Dare?

Truth: Ask yourself, “What could I do today that would scare me/shake me up and grow me?” (hint: you’ve probably thought about it before)

Dare: Take a deep breath and start! Take the first action right. This. Second.

(Note: The fear may holler and the self-judgment will probably nag…but they will sit so very small next to the enormity of the thrill.)

It’s your choice. Will you live in haziness & boredom of your Comfort Zone or will you dare to start Playing Your Edge?

Chris Maddox is the founder of The WILD Woman Project where she teaches women the practice of Radical Courage, Deep Faith + living WILDly through her Online Circle Leader Training Program, Live Workshops in NYC, & Growing Movement of Wild Woman Circles. Sign up for her weekly dose of soul food and receive her signature WILD Heart Meditation: TheWILDWomanProject.com.

 

 

 

 

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Ed: Bryonie Wise