The Comfort Zone Trap
I was comfortable. Every morning, I dragged myself out of bed, sat at my kitchen table, and logged into my first meeting of the day. Another day, another meeting I didn’t care about. It was wash, rinse, repeat. I looked forward to slamming my laptop shut every Friday, escaping to the mountains during the day, and then the city nightlife.
But the Sunday scaries always returned. The drip of a steady paycheck and my career’s general success kept my mind at ease, but my heart was restless.
A Wake-Up Call
Then it all changed. The day after returning home from a 40+ hour, 82-mile self-supported mountain race, I sat at the kitchen table, staring at the glowing screen.
Climbing mountains with bears peering through the bushes, stopping in awe of the hundreds of stars painting the sky, and watching a sunrise over the mountain tops made me feel alive, even with throbbing legs and no sleep.
Back at my desk, I felt like I had landed on another planet. How could I share these feelings with others and help them experience it too?
Over sushi that night, I announced, “I think I’m getting laid off tomorrow.” I was right.
For the following week or two, I applied to jobs that fit my background, but I found it nearly impossible to connect with and feel any enthusiasm about the job descriptions I read.
I was drained and thought, “There has to be more to life than this.”
Taking the Leap
I had always talked about getting back into coaching, but never took the leap. There was no logical reason to shake things up. Now, I had the space and freedom to do it. I signed up for courses, started studying, and soon began my mentorship program within Omni Athlete Training.
Heart vs. Mind
Initially, I wasn’t sure if coaching could be my full-time focus. I worried about what my peers would think and if I could support my day-to-day activities. My brain was wired to measure success in numbers, KPIs, and dashboards. For months, I continued to apply for data jobs, but my heart kept begging for more. The thought of returning to my old cycle felt exhausting.
Then I consciously paused my job hunt and fully committed to coaching. Almost immediately, business started to pick up. Within a few weeks, I was hired to coach group fitness at multiple gyms and began growing my team of one-on-one remote athletes. Occasionally, I had the nagging thoughts that I wasn’t cut out for this. It would be so much easier to go back to what I had known for ten years.
Discovering Purpose in Others’ Growth
Around the same time, I received a text from one of my athletes:
“When I got my daughter from school last weekend, I picked her up, and she felt much lighter and easier to pick up. That alone is worth the work, and how I know the programming is working.”
I realized that I would rather fill my cup than settle for an easy, comfortable life that takes away from so many other things.
Doing hard things, like 100-mile races, has taught me that growth doesn’t happen in comfort. I committed fully to coaching, and I haven’t looked back. Helping others grow, find joy through movement, build sustainable routines, and have fun training has become the most meaningful work I’ve ever done.
Our Heart is the Driver, the Mind is our Measurement.
I encourage you to look inward and ask yourself, “What is it that sets my heart on fire?”
Use your heart as the compass, your mind as the map, and take one step in the direction that you want to go.
Growth rarely happens in comfort, but always when you follow your fire.
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