Amy Newmark - Chicken Soup for the Soul: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone: 101 Stories about Trying New Things, Overcoming Fears, and Broadening Your World

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone 101 Stories about Trying New Things, Overcoming Fears, and Broadening Your World Amy Newmark

Published by Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC www.chickensoup.com Copyright 2017 by Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the many publishers and individuals who granted Chicken Soup for the Soul permission to reprint the cited material.

Front cover artwork courtesy of iStockphoto.com/oneblink-cj (oneblink-cj) Back cover and Interior photo artwork courtesy of iStockphoto.com/hudiemm (hudiemm)

Photo of Amy Newmark courtesy of Susan Morrow at SwickPix

Cover and Interior by Daniel Zaccari

Distributed to the booktrade by Simon & Schuster. SAN: 200-2442

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Newmark, Amy, compiler.

Title: Chicken soup for the soul : step outside your comfort zone : 101 stories about trying new things, overcoming fears, and broadening your world / [compiled by] Amy Newmark.

Other Titles: Step outside your comfort zone : 101 stories about trying new things, overcoming fears, and broadening your world

Description: [Cos Cob, Connecticut] : Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC, [2017]

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-61159-974-9 (print) | ISBN 978-1-61159-274-0 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Risk-taking (Psychology)--Literary collections. | Risk-taking (Psychology)--Anecdotes. | Courage--Literary collections. | Courage--Anecdotes. | Change (Psychology)-- Literary collections. | Change (Psychology)--Anecdotes. | LCGFT: Anecdotes.

Classification: LCC BF637.R57 C45 2017 (print) | LCC BF637.R57 (ebook) | DDC 158.1--dc23

Library of Congress LCCN: 2017947989

Changing your life one story at a time

www.chickensoup.com

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

~John A. Shedd

I ve been in this position editor-in-chief and publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul for almost a decade now, and it falls mainly on me to come up with our list of new titles each year. I always say, Im out of topics. Im not going to be able to come up with a dozen new ideas. But invariably, the topics present themselves because I see them emerging as subthemes in the stories were sent by the public. No matter what theyre writing about, their stories are colored by the other things that are important to them as well.

Thats how the Step Outside Your Comfort Zone topic came about. We saw so many of our contributors challenging themselves to face their fears and try new things. They reported how that changed them for the better, and led to more new things, and a broader, more meaningful life.

I found myself doing the same thing trying things that frightened me, or that I just assumed I wouldnt like: rock climbing in a gym, ziplining, riding every roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood, appearing on television shows, wearing my bathing suit in front of people, and forcing myself to try avocados again even though I knew I hated them. Now avocado toast is one of my favorite breakfast items!

Whether its the little things, like new foods, or the big things, like flying to a faraway country, we feel empowered when we do something that challenges us. I talk about that in my story, Run, about paragliding off a cliff in Oman. I was terrified, but it changed me. Now I know: If I can run off a cliff in Oman, anything is possible.

A big part of stepping outside your comfort zone is learning to trust. You need to trust the experts who say it can be done, or that friend or relative who tells you that you can do it. You also need to trust strangers, and we have many stories about that in this collection. I know that my college semester in a remote part of Brazil almost forty years ago taught me a great deal about the kindness and good intentions of strangers. I talk about that in my story, The Oddity, and how I still draw on the reserves of strength and trust that I built during that lonely, but exhilarating, experience.

When we post a new topic on our website, we never know exactly how our writers will interpret it, and we dont go into making a book with any preconceived notions. I always say that our books are like mirrors reflecting back to our readers what thousands of them have told us is on their minds. After Ive selected the 101 stories for each volume, I sort them into chapters, and thats when all our subthemes develop. I am so excited about the chapters that jumped out of this collection. Look at these great ideas:

1. Just Say Yes

2. Learn to Trust

3. Connect with Someone

4. Reinvent Yourself

5. Face Your Fears

6. Be Spontaneous

7. Go Far Away

8. Find Love

9. Take a Risk

10. Take Back Your Life

Now Im envying you. Youre starting the journey I just completed. I came away changed, and I bet you will, too. Id love to know what . Ill report back on the Chicken Soup for the Soul podcast, and in our next book on this topic, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Yes .

So go forth! Try new things, overcome your fears, and broaden your world. And heres my little secret: If youre about to do something scary, see if theres a video about it on the Internet. Before we went ziplining in Costa Rica, I watched a couple of videos that tourists had posted on YouTube, from the very place we were going. Thats why I seemed so cool, calm, and collected when we got there. I already knew what was going to happen.

I put my favorite quote of all time at the top of this introduction: A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. I live by that philosophy, and I highly recommend that you, too, set sail from your safe harbor. Feel the wind, see new sights, and make your world bigger.

And thank you for being one of our readers.

~Amy Newmark

August 31, 2017

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.

~Pauline R. Kezer

O kay, so I would never jump out of an airplane. How could I ever trust that a piece of fabric with a million strings coming out of it wouldnt get tangled up and fail to work? I have plenty of friends who have done it, but I wont.