Your Journey to Freedom Begins Outside Your Comfort Zone
Reinvention, resilience, and rediscovering identity to give you the courage to step up to your power within
Your ability to replay various scenes in your head is taking up too much time and energy, holding you back from living your dreams.
Are you carrying all this weight of living in chains with you everywhere you go?
The moment you stop that chatter in your head by taking action with pure intention, acting out of your heart, not your ego, then you grow exponentially.
I mean, don’t we all crave clarity? Isn’t that why you keep questioning yourself?
Clarity, courage, and a deeper connection to your purpose are what you will discover today from the powerhouse
, having worked for the military for 39 years.She is now retired but wired with passion and purpose!
Today, she opens up about how resilience, leadership, and reinvention aren’t just buzzwords—they’re lifelines when life demands more of you.
Through her journey, you’ll uncover 8 powerful shifts. From intention-setting to emotional alignment, this will help you claim your power and remind yourself who you are when the noise gets loud.
Ready to stop circling the edge of your comfort zone and finally cross it? Let’s begin.
You pay attention to what you pay for:
So let it be your true lasting growth
This month in Mindful Moments, we’re investing in what truly pays dividends:
The courage to step beyond comfort—and into who we’re meant to be.
We’re going beyond comfort—because let’s be honest, freedom is not found in safety.
It is how you walk boldly toward your purpose, power, and peace.
Subscribe to unlock your potential with weekly posts every Wednesday: empowering collaboration pieces from the heart so you can learn to live a fulfilled, purposeful life.
Today’s spotlight is on the powerwoman,
sharing her journey of resilience, leadership, and rebirth, now that she has retired from a life of service and survival.Empowering High-Performing Leaders to Navigate Transition & Lead Transformative Change with Clarity, Adaptability, & Resilience | Certified Executive Leadership Coach | Mentor | I/O Psychologist | Retired Army Civilian
I marvel at Margaret and her story, how she goes beyond the edge to tell you how to unlock growth outside your comfort zone… time and time again. She shows us:
Stepping outside your comfort zone isn’t just a motivational cliché—it can be a matter of survival, transformation, and legacy.
This is her powerful story with 8 steps to constantly pursue on your path to embrace your purpose and true freedom!
Having grown up in Detroit during the 1960s, I found that stepping out of my comfort zone was a matter of survival.
I jumped at any chance to escape the hardships of abandonment, rejection, and childhood abuse, knowing it would be better than what I left behind.
Choosing to attend the local community college, I earned my associate’s degree in Electronics Technology, which enabled me to secure an interview with the Army Corps of Engineers.
It was my character and personality that secured me the job.
For me, this was not just a job but a career—a life of adventure, prestige, travel, and a sense of self-worth and belonging—an opportunity to be involved with something greater than myself.
Wow, I thought to myself, I hit the big time.
The girl who was told she would never amount to anything and would end up like her institutionalised mother vowed to prove naysayers wrong by carving out her path and remaining undisturbed by the actions of others.
Leaving the inner city for greener pastures meant leaving behind the identity shaped by my religious upbringing, my love for Motown, the smell of BBQ on a hot summer day, the State Fair, and the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Like Christopher Columbus, I’ve explored the countryside and foreign lands in search of truth and happiness, with the realisation that what I did for a living was not actually who I was.
Following retirement, I am discovering who I am and what I want so that I may enjoy the fruits of my labour.
Self-Awareness
To fit into this new life meant shedding beliefs that were not true or unacceptable for the workplace.
Therefore, I set daily intentions based on the things that mattered most, whether they were value-based or non-negotiable, according to personal boundaries.
Setting those intentions kept me grounded.
Regardless of what was going on around me, I could block out the noise and remain focused on completing critical tasks, whether it was understanding the cost reasonableness of a multimillion-dollar change order or overseeing the construction of prisons and schools in Iraq.
One of the things you learned in the military is to block out feelings and emotions.
They cloud our judgment and our ability to respond quickly.
Being aware of such tendencies, I have become more heart-centred, knowing that without people, we can’t accomplish anything. Also, knowing the world would be a very lonely place if we didn’t have people whom we genuinely love and care about.
Purposeful Focus
Knowing why we are doing something connects us to a deeper meaning of why it matters.
It keeps our eye on the prize, keeping us motivated toward reaching our desired outcome.
By continually raising the bar, we continue to improve and perfect what we do, making the world a better place for future generations.
Specific Language
With the use of specific language, we make our messaging clear so that those individuals needing our services can find us.
Authenticity enables us to stand out in a crowded world, allowing our gifts and talents to be shared with the world.
Throughout history, we have seen how the use of specific language has been employed to ignite hearts and minds, motivating individuals to take action.
Emotional Alignment
With emotional alignment between the body and mind, we open ourselves to opportunities, making it possible for our intentions to resonate both spiritually and intellectually.
Sending us soaring toward transcendence.
Having chosen the path of service, I was rewarded beyond my imagination: genuine connections and world-travelled experiences, which would have been impossible had I not stepped outside my comfort zone.
Visualization
Visually, we ignite our creativity through what we see, feel, and hear, bringing clarity and self-awareness.
Having the ability to play various scenarios out in our heads, we gain clarity and can plan to stay two to three steps ahead.
One of the secrets of successful leaders is that they are awake when most people are asleep.
As a morning person who gets up at 4:00 am, by the time most people wake up, I have already completed the most critical tasks of the day.
Commitment to Action
With a commitment to action, we seize the opportunities when they present themselves, knowing in most cases, there are no second chances.
Additionally, if you don’t seize the opportunity, someone else will.
Consequently, I gained invaluable experience and made genuine connections throughout my career, and some of those individuals I still rely on today.
Openness to Flow
When the mind, body, and spirit are in sync, everything seems to flow in unison.
Things start to fall into place as you trust that the aligned actions lead to the results we are searching for, which can come in unexpected ways.
What I Mean by Setting an Intention
Setting an intention is about being deliberate with your energy and presence.
It’s not just about what you want to achieve—it’s about how you choose to show up in each moment. Intentions keep you connected to what matters most—your values, your purpose, and the kind of leader or person you want to be.
Where goals focus on the result, intentions focus on your mindset, your behaviour, and your impact along the way.
They help you stay grounded, especially during times of change or uncertainty, and provide a powerful point of alignment for your thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Ok, but seriously, how POWERFUL was that? Margaret, you are a champion in who you are, what you do, and how you hold your story!
Considering she covered many areas, I will leave you with three (my lucky number aha) of my go-to shifts that allow me to go out of my comfort zone time and time again (and currently in my life again!).
Discipline and Commitment:
→ The mindset and habits that turn intentions into results.
Commitment to action is the other side of stepping out of your comfort zone. Some people get stuck when they are taking the bold step forward, but that is because they are forgetting the key ingredients to keep moving:
Discipline and commitment go hand-in-hand when you hone your desire to take effect and make your dreams a reality!
People ask me how I am still going with my online endeavours after five years of ups and downs… especially as I just finished my kindergarten studies in German.
People ask me how I have the time?!
Well, this one is crucial:
I make the time.
And that is the biggest difference between those who succeed and those who fail.
I am still going because my passion to spread peace is the reason I wake up every day with a smile on my face, joy in my heart, and gratitude in my soul.
I am still going because I have been in the pit of darkness and now know how it feels, so I want to spread the light for others to feel bright.
I have grieved and gone through breakups and breakdowns, shaping me into who I am today.
As Margaret said, your purpose has to be big, and you have to step up to it and be the big and best version of yourself that your inner self is calling you to be.
When your purpose is clear, then commitment comes easily.
Flow State: When Life Aligns Effortlessly
→ How to cultivate mental, emotional, and spiritual synergy.
The flow state is my favourite. If you are a writer or creator, then you feel me.
Getting lost in the state of creating is a gift from God that I have always nurtured.
For more than the past decade, I have dedicated myself to flow states so that I align myself with the present.
These flow states don’t have to be in creation mode necessarily, but also during daily life:
The way you smell the roses post-rain
The way you smile at the woman who is dragging her dog across the street
The way you are kind, even if you are having a shit day
It’s about showing up and taking care so that you become aware of every step you take. Essentially, mindfulness. I embody it, do you?
Being Intentional
→ Why the way you show up matters more than what you achieve.
If we are not intentional, we lose ourselves.
I know, I have been there.
I lost myself in the noise of the outside world telling me to do this, buy this course, learn this, and I let myself be torn by people’s energy.
I never realised I was an empath and sensitive soul to others’ energies before I broke down.
I can read your personality like that. In just a few words, I know how you feel and can make you feel seen and heard. It is my superpower after many years of paying close attention and listening.
So what does this have to do with intentional and comfort zone?
Well, when you step out of your comfort zone, you must be intentional with your time, your effort, and this comes with listening to your inner wisdom.
If your body wants to rest, then rest.
If you don’t have 80% energy but 30%, then rest.
Rest is a radical power of self-care and comes with being intentional.
The more you step out of your comfort zone, the more you need to listen within to know who you can trust, what you can do, how to do certain things…
Intentional acts conclude the real journey to freedom, with resilience and rediscovery always coming about.
If you aren’t a paid subscriber, now is your time to dedicate yourself fully to stepping up to your divine right to shine bright.
Every Wednesday, you will receive collab posts with some of the most inspirational pioneers in well-being I have met here on Substack!
You will be reminded of all the steps you gotta take to be true to you and be free of:
Anxiety, questioning, doubting, the lot…
NOW is your time to be free.
Thanks for being here,
Now get out there:
shine your light!
with love
Grace and Margaret
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