On Success and Comfort Zones

Jane Pauley, of former Today Show and Dateline fame, was the speaker at the Town Hall South lecture series a couple of weeks ago. Pauley said something that has stuck with me since. Quoting another celeb, Jennifer Aniston, she said, "Success is just on the other side of your comfort zone."

I really love that. To me, it says success isn't impossible; it isn't even that far away. You just have to push yourself a little, just a bit over that line. For me, it puts success as a workable, gradual, achievable target—and of course, a moving one, because there will always be another edge to that zone!

I was thinking of that intensely today as I was "running"—truly more like shuffling!—on the Peters Township section of the Montour Trail. My friend and I are doing the Couch-to-5K program, and now on week seven, we were supposed to run 2.25 miles, up from two this past week. Thoughts of collapse were recurrent, and I even snapped at my friend, aka slave driver, when she ran past the point I was fixated on to turn around. But I made it—the whole 2.25 miles (and 10 feet for good measure). At the beginning of September, one-tenth of a mile was a stretch.

Wise Women, the local e-Journal that I founded for women of Pittsburgh's South Hills area, has been around for a year and a half now. We started small, but in our goal of profiling inspiring, dynamic, local women, we have achieved a measure of success—101 to date. Our readership has grown,too—over 3,000 readers per month. Like running that trail—and like most of the inspiring women we have profiled—success has come incrementally, with little nudges, and sometimes, big jumps over the edge of our comfort zone. 

We are pretty proud of what we do at Wise Women. We think women should support each other and celebrate our achievements more often. We, too, are going to continue pushing out of our comfort zone, and on Nov. 19, we are holding our first ever event—"Strong for the Holidays"—at the Crowne Plaza Pittsburgh South hotel on Fort Coach Road in Bethel Park from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10 each. Buy them here.

There will be speakers, complementary food and drink, a gift basket auction, holiday vendors, and time to visit and mingle. More importantly, proceeds will benefit Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern PA (formerly the Washington Women's Shelter) to help women who truly make drastic efforts to get themselves and their kids over that line to a better place. They deserve our support.