00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 674 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Wayne Titus author of the entrepreneur's guide to financial wellbeing. I encourage you to be inspired, to become a better steward through financial wisdom. By listening to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader, Because the only way to get out of that often times is to have support and accountability from outside.
00:00:35 This is one of the things that working with a coach can help with. The same thing happens to us in our comfort zone. Oftentimes while we're in our comfort zone, we don't see where we need to learn. We don't see where we need to grow because we're, we're so buried in the day to day. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.
00:00:56 If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world Episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent.
00:01:28 I talk with you about how you can balance these zones of learning the comfort zone, the learning zone, the growth zone, and the shutdown zone, why the learning and growth zones are where you really want to spend your time and how to recognize if you're in the comfort or in the shutdown zone. Instead, you've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books.
00:01:53 But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible
00:02:23 to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. I think Lot of us have heard the term comfort zone. And what's funny is oftentimes that so used as a, a term of diversion, you know, you're, you're, you're living in your comfort zone. Like it's always a bad thing. And the truth is there's nothing wrong with the comfort zone.
00:02:47 There. There's nothing wrong with having things in your life that you're comfortable with while other things are not. In fact, I would argue have you're trying to grow in all areas of life all at once. It generally doesn't work too well. You have to have some areas where you're kind of at your status quo, where you're at your comfort zone. The,
00:03:10 the problem is that if everything in your life is in that level of comfort, then you're not really growing. You're not stretching. You're not doing anything new. You're not learning new stuff. And the truth is that there's multiple zones that we can spend time in. And I call them the comfort zone, the learning zone, the growth zone, and the shut down zone.
00:03:33 Now the comfort zone, like I said, is oftentimes looked at as a negative, but the truth is some parts of your life should be in that comfortable state all the time. Things that you're satisfied with that you don't want to be focused on. Hang on growing right now in areas where you don't worry about growth right now, because things are good or good enough,
00:03:56 but just as surely, you should also be identifying two or three areas of your life, where you want to be learning or growing. And let's kind of talk about the difference between those, because I think a lot of them ties people think of those two things as the, you know, the, the key thing or the same thing that if I'm learning,
00:04:15 I'm also growing and there's definitely truth to that. But the application is the difference in my mind learning is when you're taking in information. And then if you put that information into action, that includes this idea of growth, that the gross zone also includes some risk, some ability to fail, some ability to stretch out and get into a new you area that perhaps is beyond what you've been able to do before.
00:04:44 This is where you can push yourself. You know, the learning zone is, is the beginning stages of growth. As you begin to take in new information and identify where you want to grow. But then as you put that information into action and begin to go back and forth between learning and growth and learning and growth and learning and growth, that's what pushes you forward.
00:05:08 That is the area that you want to be in. Whenever you've identified an area where you have to grow, when you've identified an area where you know, this component of my life is something that I want get better at. If you want to get better with your finances, then work on being in the learning and growth zone for your finances. If you want to get better with your relationships,
00:05:27 you want to work on being in the learning and the growth zone for your relationships. There's always going to be areas of your life that you want to be focusing on learning and growing. And they don't have to stay the same all the time. Either. Some of those areas may be something that you're always working on and others may just be areas that you work on for a season or two.
00:05:50 It's all. Okay. But it's about being deliberate. It's about finding those things because see here's thing, our natural status quo is to drop it into the comfort zone, to not push ourselves, to not change, to not make things new, to not grow beyond what we're able to do today. So you have to be intentional and deliberate about identifying those areas where you want to learn and grow.
00:06:15 And then the last area is that shutdown zone. See, this happens to us too. Sometimes if we're trying to push too many areas at once, we're trying to grow across too wide of a spectrum, or if we've been pushed beyond what we're comfortably able to do too quickly, we can get into what I call the shutdown zone. This is where you begin to stop doing the work that you need to do.
00:06:45 You're not learning, you're not growing. You're not putting it into action. Instead, you're frozen. You're frozen with fear. You're frozen with worry, and you're not able to put any of it into action. I think you've probably recognized that if you think about it, you've had something come upon you from outside that is put you in that shut down mode.
00:07:07 And the truth is the only way to get out of that, oftentimes is to have support and accountability from outside. This is one of the things that working with a coach can help with. The same thing happens to us in our comfort zone. Oftentimes while we're in our comfort zone, we don't see where we need to learn. We don't see where we need to grow because we're,
00:07:27 we're so buried in the day to day that we're not able to step outside of it and identify a new path or a new direction or something new to do. We don't know what we don't know in our comfort zone. You've had that feeling before where you suddenly look up and three years have gone by and nothing's changed in your life. And even if your life is wonderful,
00:07:52 that's probably not a good thing. You need to find some areas where you can learn and grow. And again, try to try to do everything at once. This isn't about uprooting your entire life. This isn't about having a midlife crisis and going through some sort of massive shift. This is about being very deliberate and intentional to grow in those areas where you most want to grow and let others stay the same.
00:08:18 But having that pattern of continually reflecting, identifying areas for growth, learning and growing without allowing yourself to be pushed into the shutdown zone creates massive change over time. And that change creates a life that you are truly called Deliv. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
00:08:55 but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent. Or if you're in the U S you can text four, four, two, two, two talent tips, that's talent tips to four four,
00:09:25 two, two, two, and get those tips until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world.