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Escape Your Comfort Zone

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Let me take you back to 2013, when I did a TEDx Talk on “The Inspirational Tipping Point” and where this presentation, in a sense, was born.

At that time, I had done 200 presentations to financial advisors across the United States and Canada, and it was for a small audience of 150 people. It was going to be filmed, and I couldn’t believe how nervous I was. I was stressed out! And I was dumbfounded. What is going on?

And then, I chuckled.

  • Here I was going to be speaking in front of an audience of Ph.D.s and master’s degrees, and I don’t have a Ph.D. or a master’s degree! I’ve got a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in the school of hard knocks.
  • It was on a college campus, number one, and second thing is, I was out of my comfort zone. I was speaking to a general audience — an audience of non financial advisors, so to speak — and I laughed at myself. Here I had been speaking in front of audiences of financial advisors for what, at that particular time, was decades to thousands of financial advisors, but I had not been in front of a general audience, and I had not been in front of master’s degrees and Ph.D.s.
  • And, what was going on with me? I realized that the amygdala had reached into the back seat and dragged out my unmet need of worthiness which was making me feel anxious and fearful, and bringing a belief in that I was worthless.

How could I possibly share this information in front of such a learned audience?

So, I did a 3 Step Process:

  1. I had to be honest with it. “I am feeling nervous and afraid that I am going to make a mistake.” But let’s kick it up a notch. “I am feeling nervous and afraid that I am a mistake.” How could Simon Reilly ever possibly be able to deliver in front of an audience of this caliber? And I wrote that down.
  2. “Forgive me for feeling anxious and afraid and believing that I am a mistake, that I am worthless.”
  3. “Forgive me for forgetting that happiness, joy, and peace flow through every cell in my DNA.”   A person of faith would say, “Forgive me for forgetting that God defines, sustains and guarantees my function of salvation. I am free.”   And from that place, I delivered the “Inspirational Tipping Point” presentation.

So, what I have shared with you here is an example of the kind of work that I do when I’m working with clients on a one-on-one basis.