On a Thursday, late in the evening, my husband calls from his gig.

“Amor, wanna do something crazy?”

I replied 70% excited, 30% reluctant: “Aham…”. I know that when he uses the word “crazy” it’s because it really is.

He continued highly excited: “John ‘Rhino’ Edwards, the bassist from Status Quo is here visiting our gig! They invited us to go to their concert in Leipzig tomorrow! You wanna go? Shall I say yes or no?”

My mind went straight to fear “But that’s tomorrow! No, no, no, no! A concert with a rolling chair?! That can’t possibly go right! What if they have stairs?! No, wait, that’s my fear mind taking control. It could be cool… Is this real fear or only discomfort because you’re getting out of your comfort zone? Ain I guess I wanna go… Who’s Status Quo? Ah, who cares, Falk likes them. Go do something crazy, woman! Remember what Marie says, start before you’re ready. No, really? Should I do this?! OMG!” 🚨

All of that happened in a matter of seconds.

I answered him still in doubt: “Yeah, sure. But what about the rolling chair?”

“I talked to them”, he said, “They think it has a rolling chair entrance but they’ll make 100% sure tomorrow and they have my number. They’ll call in case it shouldn’t work.”

“Alright then. Let’s do this.” I said.

When we arrived in Leipzig, I said: “OMG, we’re actually doing this.” And my husband replied “Yes. We are.”

By the time we got at the concert’s location, I wasn’t even all that scared anymore. I mean, I was already there, too late for regrets. We arrived, showed our V.I.P tickets and one of the security men guided us through the barrier-free entrance. It was quite full because the support act was already playing but the security guard braved through the crowd to look for a nice spot closer to the stage for me, so I could watch nicely even sitting.

Now, I wonder: Privilege because we were invited by the band or kindness from the security man? I actually like to believe it was both. And my belief grows stronger because there were other people in front of me showing me such kindness. During the concert, there was this one man, who was taking care from beginning to end to not stand in front of me — and pulling aside his wife when she did. 😂 But generally speaking, all the people around me were doing their part somehow to make it possible for me to enjoy the concert.

And that was truly humbling.

I like to consider myself a very perceptive person because I find deep meaning in the smallest and daily things. That’s why I decided to write this post. I actually learned three things from that “crazy experience”.

1. Learning vs. Doing

This year, I’ve been putting myself into some deep learning. Learning about how to build an online business, learning about my spirituality, basically learning how to reconnect myself with Love and inspire others to do the same. However, all of this learning has been an inner job, I disconnected in order to reconnect.

During winter and the colder months, it was alright to stay inside and write down what I was learning but in the three scarce summer months we have in Germany, I was forgetting to go out and drag myself out of my comfort zone as much as possible. I was forgetting to live experiences and learn from them. I was, once again, getting too comfortable. I was keeping my status quo.

It’s scary to do those things! To live so unapologetic about who you are and be in a constant state of learning — but that’s who I aspire to be. It’s easy to forget to do more of an outside job when you’re discovering so many new inside things about yourself that you didn’t even know. Honestly, going to a rock ‘n’ roll concert in a rolling chair, for me fits into getting out of my comfort zone.

Marie Forleo’s taught me that clarity comes from engagement, not thought. You won’t move forward only by thinking your way to it. That being said, be in constant learning but don’t forget to put what you’ve learned into action.

That brings me to the second thing. That funny enough I learned from Marie, as well…

2. Start Before You’re Ready

Was I ready to go on a rock ‘n’ roll concert on a rolling chair? HELL, NO! To make things even a little more complicated, my powered chair, the Enterprise, was with battery draining troubles and naturally, I couldn’t go with it. I had to go with the manual one, which I call the Shuttlepod (yes, yes, I’m a big Star Trek fan). Which was alright being pushed by my husband but of course I feel much more powerful with the Enterprise.

However, those were all conditions! And they weren’t even good enough to stop me from going to the concert. I was just scared. I didn’t feel confident enough. That’s why I claimed my courage and rolled with it.

As I’ve said on this post, the primitive part of our brain, our fear-based mind, will never feel ready for growth. Our brains are wired for survival and when we introduce elements that defy that instinct, it wants to shut it down by reacting with fear. Our thoughts stop us even before we take action. The truth is, we don’t grow inside of our comfort zone. We grow when we put ourselves out of it, where “fear” wants to stop us from going.

That means: if it feels exciting, even though there’s a little fear involved, do as Capitan Picard says:

3. My Work As An Activist For Disability Rights

First of all, Disability Rights should simply be about Human Rights. Anyway, since The Art of Redefining Yourself, I’ve made a few sacred commitments with myself. One of them is that when I’m outside in the world, I don’t roll alone. I roll for myself and every other Roller on this planet.

When I go to a concert and I show that Rollers have the right to have proper conditions to do that, I’m not only making people aware that we exist outside of this disability box, that isn’t even a reason to be called “inspiring”. What I’m doing is opening doors, removing steps for every single Roller who’ll come after me. The reason why I could go to the concert in the first place was that somewhere in the past, a Roller made a brave choice to live outside his/her comfort zone and now open-air concerts are prepared to receive us.

And in my heart, I know I’ve planted a little seed in every human who interacted with me that day. Many of them showed me the kindness and compassion that I know lives inside all of us. They made it possible for me to be entertained without neglecting their own entertainment.

•••

It turns out that the concert of the band I had never heard of before brought so many exciting moments. And the fact that their name is Status Quo was very symbolic since they definitely changed my own status quo.

I’m not gonna say it was easy because traveling, even to Leipzig that’s only an hour’s drive, is always physically painful for me. What I’m gonna say is this: it was totally worth it and I’m looking forward to be attending future concerts.

I wonder what’ll come next to drag me out of my comfort zone. Can’t get too comfortable after all. Gotta move the status quo.

With all my love,

Lina