How to step out of your comfort zone?
During my time in college, I have taken up a lot of roles. Club President, Teaching Assistant, and a Mentor. If one looks at my resume, it would be hard for them to tell that for the first 2 years of college, I was not involved in anything. People would talk about their experiences with club activities and things they are passionate about, while I would stick with responses acknowledging their contributions. I would often wonder, what am I getting out of my college experience? With no unique experiences, limited projects, how does someone justify the value of college? Something needed a change. While overnight life changes are difficult, I made a crazy change.
As an avid movie streamer, I came across a movie called Yes Man. The film featuring Jim Carrey follows the life of a boring man depressed about his life, not willing to take action upon it. Forced by a friend, he attends a seminar that commands him to say yes to every question asked. By saying yes, a lot of new opportunities come up that changes his life. Surely that’s pure fiction, right? Something like this obviously cannot happen. My answer — Yes and No.
One important aspect the film teaches is that opportunities are always in front of you, one just needs the vision to see the right ones. A person that is failing often, is trying. A person who doesn’t try gets nowhere. It took me a while to realize, but I belonged to the second category. With every opportunity brought towards me, there was an excuse for why I wasn’t interested. Want to play a game of FIFA? “Sorry, there’s a lot of work that needs to be completed.” Want to join a random club? “Maybe some other time.” Would you like to mentor a student? “I like the sound of that, but don’t think I can add much.” At each step, there was either lack of interest or self-doubt stopping me from really trying. So as a student belonging to the second category, saying yes to everything is what I needed for a push.
In September 2019 (the start of my third year), I saw a recruiting poster for a club called FirstByte. A new club that wanted to increase diversity in the field of STEM. There were two ways I could have decided. Either explore the opportunity or ignore it and continue the journey to nowhere. There was only one clear option, yes. With zero knowledge of the club, I walked across campus to meet the nicest people that want to make an impact. While I was unclear about my role, I’d still sit in every meeting like Dunder Mifflin’s Creed — a character who has no clue what he does within his company — in the hope that an opportunity comes up. Over time, one of the founders, Kasandra, asked me, “Hey, if you’re not on a team, do you want to work on our project?” That was an opportunity, and I said “Yes.” Thus began my journey of change with the Educator Enablement team. Over time the opportunities kept coming and I kept saying yes. From a member to Marketing lead, and eventually Club President. Nothing was possible if I didn’t see the movie and started saying “Yes.”
While this is just one instance, where one single change in my life led to a lot of doors. President of a club, TA for a class, Student mentor, Khoury Advisory board member, and a lot of panel events that come in my inbox and I just say “Yes” are other opportunities that have come my way. The natural question some may ask is, what if there is something you really want to say no to? Well, one of the things the movie also teaches us is that the word “Yes” loses its power over time.
At the start of the journey, you need to say “Yes” to get a lot of opportunities and push yourself. However, once you become experienced, there would be opportunities that don’t add any value to you. For instance, I mentored students for 3 different organizations, until I reached a point of eventual burnout. I love mentoring students but, saying yes to every organization doesn’t add anything unique. It’s the same thing all over again. That’s exactly where the value of yes decreases. As the Pareto Principle explains, 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. The remaining 20% of the results come from 80% effort. Saying “Yes” is your first 20% of the effort but the remaining 80% of the effort comes from the hard decision-making of what should I say yes to.
So if you are a college student or just a person trying to understand how to change your life, try accepting the word “Yes” and see the impact out of it.
