anything goes with emma chamberlain - stepping out of your comfort zone

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

life lately has allowed a lot of us to just stay in our comfort zone. we can just text people instead of meeting them, we can get everything delivered instead of going in public, etc. but i think it��s time we start changing that a little. i just had a really enlightening experience getting out of my comfort zone recently after a traumatizing experience and wanted to share it with you guys, and give you some tips on stepping out of yours, and all the positive impacts it can have our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You might be thinking, wow, Emma's voice sounds so raspy and sultry. What's going on? Is she having seasonal allergies? Does she have a slight cold or maybe the flu that's making her have a sore throat? No, I just woke up two minutes ago. Some people might call the state that my voice is in now. I don't know, sexy morning voice. Some people might say that. Anyway, I did just wake up literally 10 minutes ago. My drink of the day is a cold brew, of course, because that's always my first drink that I make myself every morning.

And I'm sitting in bed on my heating pad and I'm ready to talk to you guys. I woke up very excited to discuss. I'm so fucking mad. There's nothing, I don't know if you just heard that, but my alarm just went off. I'm so fucking mad. There's nothing, I don't know if you just heard that, but my alarm just went off. One of my 10 alarms just went off. There's nothing that makes me more mad than when I forget to turn off all the alarms I set

after I get up in the morning because I set like 10 alarms. I set one for 7.30, I set one for 8 a.m. I set one for 730. I set one for 8am. I set one for 830am. You know, I set a few, just in case. And I usually wake up when the first alarm goes off. And then for the first hour of the morning, every 30 minutes, I'm getting another alarm in my ear. And I have to turn it off and it paces me off every time. It makes me mad. It makes me live it.

There's something about it that just makes my blood boil. I cannot put a finger on it. It makes my blood boil. So here's what I want to talk about today. I had a realization over the past week about how easy it is for us to stay in our comfort zone these days. And I'll explain. The fact that we can do pretty much everything virtually or through some sort of technology, has made day-to-day life, day-to-day interactions, day-to-day tasks so much easier for us to a point where we're not getting outside

of our comfort zones as often. A good example would be when we have an uncomfortable conversation that we have to have, let's say we're kind of upset with a friend about something that they did to us. Instead of going to this friend and person and discussing with them face to face, most people would rather send them a text being like, hey, this is how I'm feeling, to avoid that face-to-face conversation. Because that face-to-face conversation is far more uncomfortable than sending

that text, another example could be avoiding the grocery store so that you don't have to see other people and instead just ordering your groceries to your door using literally any delivery app or website that you can find these days. Amazon does it, DoorDash does it, Instacart does it, like the amount of options you have to avoid the grocery store is insane and never ending. Now, while I don't think that it's a bad thing, that we have technology to utilize

to make our lives easier, I think that we as people just need to be more firm with ourselves in finding other ways to put ourselves out of our comfort zone. Because our day-to-day life has been simplified a lot and has been made a lot more comfortable. So in order to grow and evolve as people, we need to find other ways to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. Because going and having a conversation with your friend when you're upset with them in person is an uncomfortable but extremely educational experience. What you're going to get out of that experience is going to teach you so much more than just sending a text.

Because you're reading their body language, you're having to come up with what to say on the spot. You don't have the buffer of text message where you can wait to respond for an hour. You have to be fully present and have that conversation in real time. And even something as simple as the grocery store, you get to avoid that awkward conversation in the line at checkout when you order everything straight to your door. You don't even have to talk to the person

that delivers the groceries, usually. Usually they'll just leave them at your door. You don't even have to talk to them. So you get to avoid all conversation that could possibly happen, all small talk, all of the physical labor of walking around a grocery store. You get to do nothing. And obviously there's a scale of how uncomfortable something is. Let's say the scale is on a 1 to 10.

I would put grocery shopping as a 1 of being the least uncomfortable and a confrontational situation with a friend being maybe a 6 or a 7 on the uncomfortable scale. Regardless of where an uncomfortable situation falls on the scale, we need to be experiencing slightly uncomfortable situations pretty much daily in order for us to grow. And when I say uncomfortable, I obviously mean uncomfortable in the sense of something that is challenging and takes mental and or physical effort in a way that you deep down and probably prefer not to have to do. Like when you look at this certain task or thing, you're like, wow, it would be so much easier to just

not do it, right? It takes almost will power to accomplish an uncomfortable task, even if it's something as small as going to the grocery store. Now let's talk about me personally. Personally, I'm not somebody that likes going out of my comfort zone very often because I'm the type of person that thinks in a way where I like to do things in the most efficient and painless way possible. And I think a lot of people are like that, but I do know some people who are not like that, who weirdly enjoy a challenge, they crave a challenge.

I mean, for me, I don't even like roller coasters anymore. I don't even like zip lining. I don't like any of that stuff, because all of that is out of my comfort zone. That's obviously a very basic example of something that's out of your comfort zone and obvious example as well. But I don't even like doing that stuff because in my eyes when I look at going on a roller coaster or zip lining or skydiving. I'm like, yeah, you know, facing a fear makes you feel good in a lot of different ways, but I'd rather face a completely different fear. I don't want to face that fear.

Like that's a waste of energy to me. It's too uncomfortable and frightening for me. I just don't want to do it. And I tend to live my life like that in many areas. I definitely avoid uncomfortable situations. And you know, I've talked about it before, but I stay home a lot. I'm in my bed at home a lot.

I choose to spend time with people I'm very comfortable with, 99.9% of the time. I don't really like going outside of that. And I say no to a lot of opportunities that are out of my comfort zone because I just prefer not to do them. And in life, majority of the time, you have a choice of whether or not you want to do something. And if something's uncomfortable, usually I'm the type of person that's going to choose the most comfortable option. Recently, I have kind of shifted my perspective. And for whatever reason, I've been wanting

to get out of my comfort zone a little bit more. And it wasn't like a conscious decision that I made by any means. It was something that kind of happened subconsciously. I didn't even notice it happening. I didn't even realize that I had this desire to kind of push myself a little bit until after the fact. And I'll explain. So recently I got an offer to public speak at an event in Miami, Florida. And for the past three years,

I've said no to every single public speaking opportunity I've gotten immediately without even second thought because three years ago I had a traumatizing experience and I'll tell you about this traumatizing experience. I think I've told this story to before but whatever. We'll tell it again. So three years ago, in about 2018, I believe, I was very new to the world of the internet.

I had only started posting things on the internet I had only started posting things on the internet a year and a half prior, maybe even just a year prior, at that point. And I was very new to everything. I was fresh meat, as some may say. And I was at a point where I was starting to become recognized for what I was doing. At the time, I was making weekly YouTube videos and they were starting to gain traction and I had hit my first million subscribers

and things were shifting. I was going from just a girl who was making YouTube videos for fun and lived at home to this girl who was making YouTube videos for fun and lived at home to this girl who was making videos and then now somehow can support herself and lives in Los Angeles by herself at 17 and has no idea what the fuck is going on. And so I was in this really uncomfortable place as it was in my life where I had just recently found success in creating content on the internet. And I was starting to get recognized, which was just a mind-fuck.

But meanwhile, I'm moving out at a young age and trying to figure out how to be an adult a few years earlier than I thought I was going to have to. And the whole thing was just a huge mind-fuck for me. But I got nominated during this time for an award at an award show called the Streamy Awards. I got nominated for a Streamy Award, which is basically the Internet Award Show. It's the award show for people who make videos of some sort on the internet. And I got nominated for Breakout Creator, which was basically like the award for an emerging content creator, if you will. I was nominated for that.

And this was extremely exciting for me because everything was so new. I was so uncertain of so much and it was so reassuring to be nominated for an award in the midst of this chaos and massive life shift. And so I was very excited. And of course, I wanted to go to the award show. I didn't think I was going to win the award, but I just wanted to be there and meet people that I had idolized for so long that we're going to be at this event. I was very excited, but I also didn't anticipate winning, so I didn't prepare to win.

The only preparation I did was just pick out an outfit that in retrospect was absolutely atrocious and so fucking ugly and I can't even look at it now without cringing, but whatever. That was all the prep I did was picking out an outfit. Other than that, I just went into it blind. So here I am at this award show. It's streamed live for whoever wants to watch.

And it's time for them to announce my category. And all of a sudden they say, and the winner for breakout creator is Emma Chamberlain. I wanted to start crying, but not because I was excited. I wanted to start crying because I had to go up and give an acceptance speech, and I had never done that before. I had never thought about what that would be like. I didn't plan at all because I didn't think

I was going to win. And unlike most award shows where they tell you beforehand whether or not you're gonna win, or at least I assume that that's what they normally do, allegedly, before like fucking the Oscars, sue me or something. before like fucking the Oscars, sue me or something. I had to go up and give an acceptance speech in front of all of these people that I had idolized

since I was as young as 10 on YouTube and other platforms alike. I had to go up and give a speech, rip something out of my ass in front of all these people that I idolize. Meanwhile, my identity is in shambles. I just moved to LA, super young. All of this is so new to me.

I was so incredibly overwhelmed and terrified that I went up there on stage and I don't even remember what I said, but I basically gave the worst acceptance speech possibly on the planet. Okay. And when I tell you that I've never been able to live it down, I've never been able to live it down. The speech is so awkward.

I was, my voice was shaking and I was like, um, thank you guys. Like, hi mom, I was, it was bad. Everything about it was bad. You know what, if you want to go Google it, go Google it, but also if you care about me, don't fucking Google it, okay, please, it's so bad. I, there's no way I can bury it. Like, I don't know how to bury it.

It's there, it's there, it's out there. I wish I could get it deleted from every single fucking platform on the planet. I wish I could remove it, wipe it clean. But no, it's out there. I wish I could get it deleted from every single fucking platform on the planet. I wish I could remove it, wipe it clean. But no, it's out there. And I have never, ever been able to live it down to this day. I get tagged in this video and people are making fun of me because it's cringy. I get it.

I was a mess. I was a complete mess. Okay. Like, the speech was terrible. Obviously I can defend myself all I want and be like, but I didn't know and I just moved LA and I was everything was so new to me and I didn't know what to do and I was so inexperienced. Whatever it is what it is. And yeah, it was embarrassing but also also, so what? Like, it's fine. But ever since then, I have said no to every single opportunity to public speak

because that situation traumatized me so bad and I've never been able to escape it. And instead of me thinking to myself after this terrible experience, wow, I wanna learn how to public speak better and I wanna learn how to feel comfortable on a stage in front of people that I respect. I've never thought that.

I've always been like, oh, I'm just never going to do it again. Simple as that. I will just never do it again. And so I've said no to every opportunity that came up until this past week, where I got an opportunity to public speak at an event in Miami, in front of a unique crowd.

It wasn't people in my age, it wasn't people in my industry, it was people in a completely different industry, adults, actually, mainly adults over the age of 40, but for some reason, I said yes to this. I was like, yeah, you know what, sure, like I'll, I'll public speak in front of them, sure. You know what, sure. Like I'll public speak in front of them, sure. I was honestly shocked at myself when I first said yes, because I was like, I'm a deep, like this is new.

You know, you haven't even considered for a second public speaking ever since you're meltdown three years ago, you know. I was shocked at how automatically I said yes, but let's fast forward to the event itself. There's about 200 people, maybe like 100 people. 100, I don't know, I'm really bad at guessing.

How many people are in a room? That's not something I'm good at. It could have been 50 people. It literally could have been 400 and I wouldn't be able to know the difference. But we're gonna say it was about 150 to 200 people in the room. I walk in and I sit on the side of the stage and the man who's going to be interviewing me

is giving his presentation. I'm sitting there and at first I feel very calm. I'm like, you know what? Like, worst case scenario, I freeze up up there and it's a terrible experience. But I never have to see these people again. You know, a lot of these people I will never see again. It doesn't really matter. And I felt pretty calm. And then about five minutes before it was time for me to go on, I started to convince myself that I had a migraine. I get the type of migraines that makes you go partially blind. Like they def, it, it, it, it fucks with your vision.

I get those types of migraines. I started to convince myself I was getting one of those and those are really scary because when you get those types of migraines, you can't see properly. Like it gives you blind spots in your eyes. It's very weird and you become really sensitive to light and you get a really, really excruciating headache. For some reason, I started to convince myself

I was getting one of those headaches. And then I started to feel my heart beating and my heart rate started going up. And I got clammy the whole nine yards and I was like, okay, I'm not getting away with this one easy. I'm having a full bodily reaction to this experience. I thought that I could calm myself down. I thought I could be chill and just be like,

well, worst case scenario, it's fine. But my body made the decision for me that it was nervous and it started reacting. But I was like, well, it's too late now. You know, I gotta do this. And I, in the moments leading up to going on stage, there's nothing I wanna do less. I literally would love to just walk away right now

and not fucking do this. I've never wanted to do something less in my life. I was so scared, but alas, my time comes, I get called up on the stage for my interview, slash speech of sorts, and for the first two minutes, I was a complete mess. Every word that I would say, my voice was shaking, it was like, I can't even explain how my voice was shaking, and what it sounded like, but my whole body was shaking, and you could see it.

And I know everybody could probably see it. I looked terrified. I didn't know what to do with my face. My facial expression was so bizarre, it was like a calm... It was a mix between like smiling, but also looking like I was going to burst into tears simultaneously. It was very unique. It was probably a unique facial expression to look at as the crowd. But anyway, about a minute and a half, two minutes in, my heart rate started to go down

and I started to feel calm. And I was like, wait, oh my God, I'm relaxing. I'm relaxing up here. And about five minutes in, I forgot I was ever even scared at all. And I was enjoying myself. I was enjoying talking about all these different topics to this crowd. And then 15 minutes in, I was like, I love this. Like, this is actually really fun. I'm not scared, I'm not nervous. I'm excited about what I'm talking about. People seem to be relatively interested

in what I'm talking about. This is great. I actually am enjoying myself somehow. And I walked off of the stage after the hour long interview walked off of the stage after the hour long interview. And felt a unique feeling that I haven't felt in a really, really long time. I felt like I had just unlocked something new that I enjoyed,

that I used to be bad at, but that now I felt like I maybe wasn't so bad at. And that in turn made me feel capable in a way that I normally don't feel capable. I tend to be pretty hard on myself as it is, but because I also don't challenge myself very often, and I don't push myself out of't challenge myself very often, and I don't push myself out of my comfort zone very often, it's very rare that I'm reminded of what I'm capable of,

because I just don't ever put myself in situations that would show me that. And my brain tends to tell me that I'm only good at what I'm good at. Like there's nothing more that I could possibly be good at out there. My brain loves to tell me that. But suddenly, not doing a terrible job at public speaking just shattered that dialogue in my head of me saying to myself how I'm only good at what I'm good at and there's no reason to try new things

because there's already hundreds and millions of other people who are already good at it. What am I going to add to that? Why even try? Blah, blah, blah. This experience made me realize there are so many different things out there that I could possibly be good at that I don't even know yet about. And my fear of public speaking was rooted in one experience. And by never giving it a second chance, I never allowed myself to learn how to do it and

to learn how to enjoy it. And that's a shame, but it's not too late to start now. This experience of putting myself in an uncomfortable situation and then coming out on the other side alive and well and fine gave me a boost of confidence in a big, big way. I felt really good about myself and I again don't feel great about myself all the time. Like, I don't feel confident in capable every day. I really don't. I am somebody who, again, loves to beat myself up all the time

and try to convince myself that I'm a piece of shit, probably as some sort of coping mechanism in order to help me avoid uncomfortable situations. My brain loves to be like, you're not capable of this, you're not capable of that. You're gonna fail if you try this, you're gonna fail if you try that. My brain convinces itself not to push itself

out of its comfort zone to avoid failure and to avoid discomfort. But this situation pushed that thought out of the way and made me feel excited about the idea of what other ways I could possibly push myself to try something new or to get myself out of my comfort zone. The outcome of this was really great. I learned so much about myself, about what ways I can push myself in my career and job

that make me feel excited and make me feel inspired. I learned that now the challenge of public speaking is something that I can handle and is something that makes me feel good and I wouldn't have known that otherwise The outcome of this was successful but Sometimes pushing yourself out of your comfort zone isn't successful.

And I wanted to touch on a situation that also happened to me this weekend that's a little bit less profound maybe. But is an example of where pushing myself out of my comfort zone didn't maybe end as successfully as I wanted it to. So, while I was out of town this weekend, I wanted to kind of push myself to go and be social, whether that was going to dinner with someone or saying yes

to an invite to a party or an event, I wanted to just kind of say yes to things that I would normally say no to because I'd rather just avoid the social interaction. And I go through phases where sometimes I'm open to pushing myself socially and other times I'm open to pushing myself socially, and other times I'm not. This weekend, I was kind of like, I don't really know where I stand. But because I was kind of neutral on it,

I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna push myself, and I'm just gonna kind of say yes to everything. Because I had a lot of free time while I was there, and I was like, I'm just gonna kind of say yes to everything and see who I can meet, see what types of experiences I can have and just see what happens. So there was one party in particular

that I went to this weekend that I said yes to, that I probably wouldn't have normally said yes to, but I was like, I don't know what it's gonna be like. How am I supposed to know what it's gonna be like before I arrive? I could sit in bed all night and just guess what I think this party would be like, or I could go check it out, see if it's something

that I like and if it's something I don be like. Or I could go check it out, see if it's something that I like, and if it's something I don't like, then I leave. So I went to this party, and I did not like it. I didn't like the environment. I didn't like the people that I was surrounded by. I don't, not that I didn't like them.

They're probably great people, I don't know but I I didn't really feel comfortable in the environment that I was in but This discomfort was not like Discomfort in a healthy way. It was discomfort in an unhealthy way It was discomfort that I don't need to feel. The type of discomfort I was feeling was not positive. I just felt like the people around me were not on the same wavelength as me to put it simply. And you know when you're at a party, people will try to suck you into staying longer.

They're like, no, stay longer, stay longer. And that started to kind of happen to me. And I was like, I really, really want to go home. You know, I really want to leave. But people were like, no, stay, stay longer. Like, let's hang out, let's hang out. And I was like, ah, ah, I don't want to do this. I want to go home.

Like, I want to go back to my room, like whatever. And I kinda let these people force me to stay out for longer than I would have wanted. And obviously this is not to say that they're bad people or anything at all. But, you know, they're kind of trying to get me to say out longer. And in that moment, you know, I could have been like, Oh, no, I'm going to go. I really think I need to go. But like, thank you for being, because it was strangers, by

the way, that we're like being like, you know, like, Hey, hang out for longer, whatever. I could have been like, oh no, like, I'm gonna go. But I didn't because I was uncomfortable by that and I was uncomfortable with the confrontation of being like, no, I actually wanna go home. So I didn't and instead I stayed out longer than I wanted to and I ended up going home feeling spineless and terrible. I went home feeling stupid.

I was like, all right, I went out to kind of push myself out of my comfort zone and I went home feeling like a pushover and like a loser because I didn't have the guts to say, oh no, I wanna go home. And instead, I was appeasing everyone else. And that made me feel really shitty, because the only person there is to blame for that is me. Those people would have been fine if I would have said, oh, I gotta go, you know, I gotta go.

They wouldn't have fucking cared. They would have gotten over it immediately. But I'm a yes man. I just want to make everybody happy. So I put myself out and I inconvenienced myself and I upset myself in order to please these people. And that made me feel icky. It made me feel bad. And at first I was like, God, what positive could come out of this? In theory, I push myself out of my comfort zone, and that should always reap some sort of benefit, right? Where's the benefit here?

And then it dawned on me. The point of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is not to always have a success, but instead, it's to help you solidify how you feel about something. And it helps you grow your confidence in your beliefs. And it helps you become more comfortable with who you are. Like for example, my public speaking experience showed me that I actually enjoy public speaking and that I'm not really so afraid of it

and that if I get an opportunity moving forward, I should say yes so that I can continue to get better at this because it's something that actually does shockingly make me feel good and I do actually enjoy doing it. And the act of doing it makes me feel very capable and confident and excited and inspired for whatever reason. I learned that from that experience. Whereas me going to this party and taking that risk showed me that I need to learn to stand up for myself with new people.

When I'm in a new environment and I'm meeting new people and I'm kind of going into it blindly not sure what I'm getting myself into. I need to learn how to remove myself from those situations immediately when I realize that I'm not really enjoying it. I need to learn how to leave immediately when things are just not the right vibe and I realize that, but also how to tell people, no, because I have a really hard time saying no. But I went home feeling so guilty and dirty and gross about not staying true to myself in that environment and not going home when

I wanted to go home. And it made me feel the opposite of how the public speaking experience made me feel. It made me feel incapable and insecure and small and like a push over and like an idiot. But the way that I was able to turn that into something useful was that not only did I learn that that certain type of party environment maybe isn't for me, but I also learned that I need to work on standing up for myself and saying no and risking maybe hurting someone's feelings so that I don't go home and look at myself in the mirror and just see a push over into yes man. The moral of the story is I would argue that any time you push yourself out of your comfort zone, you're going to learn something.

Even if it's something really small, it could be trying out a new workout class that you've never done before. And you're afraid because you feel like you're going to look stupid and that it's going to be too hard and that it's going to be like it's just going to be an upsetting experience and it's going to be too hard and that it's going to be upsetting experience and it's going to be awful, but at the same time you want to try because everybody's raving about how amazing these workout classes are. So you want to try for yourself.

Well, let's look at both scenarios. On one hand, you could go and you could love it and everything could go perfectly and it could give you confidence knowing that you're capable of accomplishing something that you thought could possibly go terribly wrong. You're capable of trying something new and nailing it. Or you could go and it could be a terrible experience and you know it could be way too hard and make you very uncomfortable and maybe people in there were mean and it was just an awful experience. Well now you know that you don't like this fucking workout class and you don't want to go

again but you can at least look in the mirror at the end of the day and say that you didn't give up, you tried and that within itself should give you confidence. So, in every scenario when you push yourself out of your comfort zone, you learn something, even if you have to make a mistake along the way, even if you don't realize immediately what you learned from it, I think that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone always leaves you with a lesson. And I'm not going to say here and say that every time I get an opportunity to go outside of my comfort zone, I'm going to take it.

That's just not true. You know, you have to choose which things make the most sense for you. And that's going to look so different for everybody. But I think it's just something to be aware of. Because as I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, our lives have never been easier. It's never been easier to stay in your comfort zone. So we have to force ourselves to find ways to challenge ourselves. To finish off this episode, I wanted to list a few ideas of small ways that you can push yourself out of your comfort zone that may not give you this profound conclusion,

like the example that I gave in the beginning of my public speaking experience, it may not be that profound, but even pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in small ways has an effect. And that effect is that number one, it proves you that you're capable of doing more than you thought you were.

And two, it helps you solidify your opinions and your beliefs and your personality. It helps develop those things and solidify those things. And all of these small little acts It helps develop those things and solidify those things. And all of these small little acts and things that you can do will help to slowly but surely solidify who you are in your head. Because the small stuff is just as important as the big stuff. The first thing that you can do is you can ask somebody to hang out that maybe you're

not super close to, but that you want to hang out with them, but you're like, but it's going to be kind of awkward because we're not that close. But I want to be close with them, but it's just so much work to get to a point where we're gonna be close. So I just, you know, I'm just gonna avoid hanging out with them because it's too much work. Ask that person to lunch, to coffee, to go get your nails done with you.

Ask that person to hang out because you might learn, wow, that was actually really pleasant. And even though it was a little bit tense in the beginning because we're not super close, and there's a little bit of unfamiliarity there, and it was a little bit uncomfortable, despite all of that, I was able to get through it, and we were able to have a really good time,

which then proves to you that you are more socially capable than you thought. Or maybe it went terribly and you were like, you know what, this is not really the type of person that I actually get along with. And I don't think I'm gonna maybe go to lunch with somebody like this again just because we didn't click. Now you know even more about what type of people

you like to have in your life. Just from this simple lunch with this person that you don't know very well. Another thing that you can do is force yourself to read a book because a lot of people think I don't have the attention span to read a book. I just don't. That's not true.

If you wanna read a book, you can read a book. Even if your attention span is terrible, because listen, it's very common to have a very bad attention span. I know, trust me, mine, ebbs and flows, sometimes my attention span is amazing, and sometimes it's awful, just depending on how much I'm using my phone and blah, blah, blah.

Forrest yourself to read a book and prove to yourself that you can control and can alter your attention span, that you can push past the boredom to finish a book if you want to. Because no matter what you think about yourself, if you really, really dedicate yourself to something like reading a book, you can do it. The only person getting in the way is you.

So forcing yourself to read a book, cover to cover, will prove to you that your determination is stronger than your weaknesses. Your weakness being to close the goddamn book and open TikTok, you know what I mean? It feels good to know that you're stronger than your impulses to give up on something just because your attention span is destroyed from the internet, which again is not your fault. We're all dealing with it.

But you see what I mean? Next, you could delete an app that you're addicted to because this is a similar thing to reading a book where a lot of people say, you know, I'm addicted to TikTok. I'm addicted to Instagram and I cannot stop using it. You know, and I can't delete it because if I delete it, I'll be missing out on all this stuff. And also, I don't know what I'll do without it because I'm on it every single day and it's a part of my routine. And I don't think that I could live without it. Yes, you could. Yes, you could live without it. You can.

I got a comment on one of my Instagram posts the other day that said, I wish I could delete TikTok like you did, but I can't. And I read that comment and I wanted to respond and be like, but you can. You absolutely can. Why can't you? Because you're gonna miss out on stuff and maybe you'll be bored. None of that's gonna kill you. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. There's fear involved. You know, what is my brain gonna think about when I don't have TikTok to scroll through, you know, during my downtime, to consume my mind instead of letting it roam free? What is my brain gonna think about? That's scary.

What am I gonna miss out on if I'm not on TikTok or on social media? That's scary. I understand that. But challenging yourself to delete an app off your phone that's not serving you, that's not having a positive impact on you. Proves to yourself that you have the power

of your own life. You are in the driver's seat of your own life and if something is not working for you, that you have control to remove it. Even if you're addicted to it, it's so empowering to remove something from your life that you're addicted to because nothing is more powerful than addiction. And I know that that's like a whole other thing. I'm talking about social media addiction specifically because I don't, like the addiction as a whole is a very complex subject. But when it comes to social media addiction and phone addiction, that's something that I feel comfortable talking about. And that's

something where you can control that addiction yourself. It's not something that requires help from anyone else. You on your own can cure that addiction. And I can say as somebody that has cured my own internet addiction to a certain extent, that by curing it, you proved yourself, wow, I can fight against my own addictive, impulsive thoughts for my own long-term gain. I have enough willpower to do it, and that feels so good. It's so rewarding.

And at first, it's tough, but you end up in a place where you feel more confident, more capable, and happier as a result. Next, you could literally cook a complex recipe. capable and happier as a result. Next you could literally cook a complex recipe. Whether you succeed or fail at cooking this recipe, it doesn't matter because it's a very low risk way to go out of your comfort zone. But doing anything that's new or challenging will leave you in a better spot than you were before you tried it.

You could take a class at school that intimidates you. Let's say you're really interested in biology, but you don't think that you're smart enough to take an advanced biology class, but you've been offered a spot in the class. Take the fucking class. Worst case scenario, you have to drop the class. You're like, it was too much. I couldn't handle it. It was ruining my day-to-day life,

and it was destroying my well-being to a point where it wasn't worth it. Well, at least you can say that you tried, and that you challenge yourself to the utmost degree. And again, that leaves you in a better spot than if you had never tried it all. And then if all goes right and you take the class, it could be an incredible experience. Next you could choose to have conversational conversations in real life rather than over the phone. When your friend is upsetting you, instead of sending them this long text essay, being like,

here's what you did wrong, call them on the phone or arrange to meet up with them in person. Have a conversation with them. It's so uncomfortable and it's so much easier not to. But the result of having a face-to-face conversation is so much more impactful than sending a text essay for infinite reasons. In conclusion, I'm just planning the seed in myself and in you that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is important and no matter what the outcome leads to growth.

And I just think that that's a reminder that we all need sometimes. And that's all I got. Thank you for listening. I really loved hanging out with you guys today. Just discussing, just discussing. If you want, you can subscribe to anything goes on any platform that you stream podcasts. You can leave a review on Apple podcasts and you can follow the Twitter at AG podcast to participate in future episodes. And also, I never mentioned this, but I do have a coffee company. And if you want to check that out, the website is ChamberlainCoffee.com, the Instagram is at ChamberlainCoffee. Go check it out. We have matcha, we have cold brew, we have coffee beans, we have cute mason jars, we have cute cups.

We're coming out with instant coffee that's actually good because a lot of times instant coffee is not so good, but we're coming out with instant coffee that's actually really good. You pour coffee into a cup or like this powder into a cup of water, mix it up and you have coffee and it actually isn't awful. So that's coming out.

It might already be out by the time that you hear this. And if not, it'll be out soon. So stay tuned for that because I'm very excited about that. And that's all I got. Thank you guys so much for listening. I really appreciate all of you more than you know. You guys are the freaking best. Ew, I haven't said the word freaking

since I was like maybe 16. I used to say that all the time. I used to be like, oh my God, this is so freaking awesome. I would say, oh my God, I can't, I actually can't. I shouldn't have even brought that up because like that's exposing myself in a way that I really can't, I shouldn't have even brought that up because like that's exposing myself in a way that I really can't handle. So I'm gonna turn off my microphone now

before I expose more about myself that I just don't wanna talk about. I love you all so much, thank you for listening. And I will talk to you soon. Bye.