"To soar towards what's possible, you must leave behind what's comfortable." - Cicely TysonEpisode Overview

In this episode, host Alicia Thomas explores how stepping out of your comfort zone is essential for personal growth and achievement, using a powerful quote from legendary actress Cicely Tyson as inspiration.

Episode Highlights

• Understanding that comfort is just a rest stop, not a destination (01:24)
• How comfort zones can become personal prisons (02:48)
• Cicely Tyson's pioneering decision to wear an Afro on television in 1962 (03:58)
• The Williams sisters leaving Compton for Florida to pursue tennis (04:20)
• Simone Biles pushing beyond conventional gymnastic boundaries (05:47)
• Why you need new skills for new levels (06:49)
• The closed fist metaphor - unable to give or receive (07:37)
• Finding what you want on the other side of fear (08:54)
• The Star Wars trash compactor metaphor for comfort (10:10)
• Why staying in comfort too long breeds jealousy (11:00)
• Recommendation of Cicely Tyson's autobiography "Just As I Am" (11:50)
• The power of "doing it scared" (14:06)
• Failing forward as a learning opportunity (15:02)

Quotable Moments

"Comfort is just a mile marker. Because when we live a life of total comfort, we live a life without growth."

"If there are multiple people like you that look like you, talk like you, do everything the way you do it, one of you is not necessary."

"New levels, new devils. And you got to be willing to fight those new devils to get to those new levels."

"A closed hand can neither give nor receive because whatever in your hand at that time, in that closed fist, it becomes a prisoner."

"Just do it scared. It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to be perfect."

This Week's Challenge

Pick one thing that you are afraid to do. Write down a worst-case scenario of what could happen if your greatest fear occurs. Make a plan to address it and then challenge that comfort zone by doing what you're afraid to do.