Out Of My Element.

Hey, what's up? I'm Brittany, and I'm here to with you today in a very, very, very vulnerable state. Little background. I am a Cadre contributor, which I love this role. I am a veteran. I was in the army as a combat medic. I also am 15 years sober, and I have a radio show here in Minneapolis. Now, this is why I'm in a hotel. This is not normal for me. That's why I'm in a hotel, and it's why I am exhausted, and it's why I've been really pulled out of my element. So our radio show is MyTalk 107 1.

And we raise money every year by doing something out of the ordinary. We've done a lot of different things before. This year is dance. Like, what does that mean? So we have three days where we live together. I mean, it's in a hotel, so it's like live together. But it is fun because we hang out a bunch. I'm our whole radio station. But then we also take on a dance routine. Actually three dance routines for a dance show that we sell tickets to to raise money for a nonprofit. Me and my. Me and my co host and producer, the Brittany and Kendall Show.

We have to be continued. Which is about suicide awareness, mental health awareness, and getting resources into. This is a little bit of unreached, less reached areas. This is in the Carver County. The point is they don't have a lot of mental health access and they're feeling that pain. Their suicide numbers are exponentially higher than here in the Twin Cities. So this money we're raising is important. Now this is what I wanted to talk about today. I'm out of my element. We're doing a dance. And I love.

I love dancing. Like, freestyle dancing. Great, grand, wonderful. Love everything about that. But, like, we're doing a Beyonce dance. Queen bee. Love her. I don't move like that. Like, I'm more. Yeah. Party. Arms in the air. Dance around. The things we are doing in this dance. I am so out of my freaking element. Did I mention I'm ex military? Like, at one point, my instructor is trying to get me to roll my back. And I go, I don't know if my back moves like that. And I keep learning things about myself in these moments of extreme, extremely awkwardness.

Extremely out of my comfort zone. And I think there's so much growth there. But it's awful. I mean, awful, right? Like, luckily, I have the kind of personality that can usually find the humor in it pretty closely. But you guys, I haven't it's been a while. I mean, I think that I've put portrayed this on my live streams. I don't really care about looking dumb. I don't really care about being perceived A, B or C. I'll tell you all my things because I don't mind. I rarely feel out of my element because I've decided the world is my element and also the world isn't my element.

So who cares? I just don't care. This has been something that I haven't felt in a long time. We got the combination of nerves, embarrassment, being the worst in my group. I'm the worst in my group. When's the last time you were the worst at something? It is humbling is an understatement. Okay, so let's talk about why we love our comfort zones. Our comfort zones are comfy, cozy. Our comfort zones are like a big old blanket. I love my comfort zone. You love your comfort zone too, and that's okay. I mean, it's literally called your comfort zone.

What's not to love about that? So why would we step out of it? I. I think that I don't. I mean, I know people say the magic happens when you step out of your comfort zone. No, it doesn't. I mean, eventually, maybe, if you choose it to, but actually the diarrhea happens, the anxiety happens, the not sleeping normal, the feeling dumb happens. And I think it's more of what you do with that that can decide if it's something that you use or if it's something that you don't use. So when we step out of our comfort zone, it's one of those things that you find out a lot about yourself, good or bad.

And like, that's the thing too. Like, I hate it when people literally just say, again, stepping out of your comfort zones. Magic happens. No, it isn't. Oh, JC's on here. And Andy. Hey, Andy. And JC. Nerves aren't a sign that you can't. They are signs that you are. Love watching you make the magic. Thanks, JC. JC's kind of falling over it. Long as we try to take on this dance, it's. I think there's something really beautiful about reflecting after. So let's think about when we do step out of the comfort zone.

Let's think about my dance. Because it's so. It's embarrassing how much I care and how I want to do well, because I'll be really honest, normally in like a class or doing something, I'm one of the better people and I feel good about it. There's this huge uncomfortableness around how I'm supposed to react when I fail, which I fail a lot in these dances, over and over and over again. What do I do with that? And what I've realized, a thing I've really been learning is my face is conveying a lot of different things that I'm not even trying to convey.

And this has been so important. Important to me. So this is probably being a lesson that I'm going to take forever, is that my face keeps telling everybody I'm miserable. And I'm like, I'm having fun, and I'm trying really hard. And I keep thinking to myself, how many times in my life have people asked me, hey, what's wrong? Are you okay? And I'm like, I keep putting the onus on them to know that I'm fine. And I realizing, especially with these dances, is like, no, Brittany, you're posturing, and your face is saying a lot that you're not conveying.

Do you know how much I need to use that in my everyday life? Like, I. I don't think that I would have taken that in as much had it not happened so many times during this experience. Now, again, I'm gonna face the face. Yes. JC so, like, when we do these dances, I'm having fun, but I'm concentrating. And I don't know if you knew, but I was born with these bad boys. That means this is a lot. And then once we're done and I'm sitting in my head going, okay, we did this right? We did that right? Like, this is what I feel like.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, what else? What else? What else? But this is what I'm showing. So everybody's like, you got this, Brit. It's okay. And I'm like, no, I know I got this. Well, I mean, I probably don't have it, but, like, I'm fine. I'm okay. Learning that lesson these past three days, that's probably life changing for me. Now, again, the magic isn't when the discomfort happens. The magic is after the comfort comes back. So what do I want to do? Do I want to use that information and apply it to my life?

H***, yeah, I do. Because I want to grow. Because I want to be the version of me that conveys what's going on in my head or at least verbalize if I know somebody new. Like, just so you know, this is my face a lot. But, like, I am smiling it. Like, even just having that conversation with new people in my light, be it a boy Be it a friend, be it a co worker, just conveying, like, I. It's not like I'm saying, bring you up to smile more, but I'm saying now I'm more aware of something like that. So, again, the magic isn't in the discomfort.

It's not. It's not great. Here I have. I feel a sense to not sleep well, not eat well, and I'm anxious because we have this big old performance where we're raising so much money for a mental health nonprofit. To be continued. The magic is when I go home, and what do I want to apply? What do I want to learn from the things while I was in the discomfort? One of the things I want to learn is there was a time the first day we were here that I thought we learned the dance. And I thought, I can't do this.

And people around me were telling Mimi, I can. And I said, no, I can't. And I literally. I had an urge to openly weep over a dance. And I went to sleep, woke up the next day, tried again, and I realized I'm getting better. And, like, having that faith in myself that I'm. I'm gonna work so hard. That's one thing about me. I'll never be the best dancer. I'll never maybe even get the twerking right or the body roll that they really want me to get right. And I've been working like crazy on jc. I don't have a b***.

I. But I. I need to have faith in myself and my work ethic that I know that I'm going to stay up late at this freaking hotel and work on the dance, and I'm gonna wake up early and work on that dance, and I'm gonna show up and work on that dance because, like, I keep proving it to myself that I can do things. I. Cadre. Cadre is something. I mean, anybody who I talked to at Cadre, I was like, can I do this? Can I be somebody? I mean, all these lessons I've learned for being sober for so long, being a veteran, being somebody who's dealt with so much and informally.

I talk about mental health with so many people, but can I formally sit and do a live stream for 15 minutes to talk about this? I didn't have faith in myself. I met with jc I met with Shannon, and I said, can I do this? And all these people in my life are like, you can do this, and you are doing this on a daily basis. And it's so amazing to be like, I can do this, because I Have proof in myself that I will work hard and continue to grow and continue to get better and whatever it is, watch other people's lives, learn more about how to convey my thoughts in an organized way, take my little notes on my computer and.

And I can do this and also, like, have that realization too. Be it this dance, be it Cadre, that I also might not be able to do it. I might fail tonight. I might not do the dance right. Cadre might say, we're good. We don't need any more of this rambling, and that's okay too, and I will be fine. And so again, the lessons, the magic. The magic is never in the moments of awfulness or discomfort or whatever. The magic is in what you do with those lessons. I feel so blessed and so thankful that there are things in my life that I still feel discomfort in.

After these years of being on the radio and having a deployment under my belt and doing so much, there's still things that make me feel uncomfortable. And I can't wait to keep learning about myself and apply that to create and be the person that I am trying to. To continuously be. So for me, the two big lessons, again, I learned is first off, convey that I got a face problem. Acknowledge it. I should probably. I should probably write my ex husband a letter of, hey, you were right. I do. I do have a face tab.

You asking what's wrong all the time. And then on top of it is my work ethic is top tier. And things I can't do, I'm gonna do anyways. And I'm gonna try so hard because I. I don't mind failing. And I. I like trying. I like working really hard on things. JC wrote the Hagan Magic Metabolizes Changing the world. Thanks for throwing it on. Sharing it. You guys, thank you so much for talking with me. I do feel like I'm nervous about tonight, but I do. I definitely am going to apply a lot of these out of the comfort zones to my everyday life.

And these live streams are also helping me acknowledge that it's so much, so much in my face that I need to convey. Well, I hope you guys have a weekend worth a bajillion moments, and I will talk to you all soon. I gotta drink this bad boy. All right. I love you, jc. Thanks, Andy and JC for hanging out with me. It was lovely. You guys are the best. I don't care. You guys are the best. Now I gotta do my awkward. Who run this mother.