Expand and Grow in Your "Comfort Zone" with Kristen Butler

We all have heard the phrase " you need to get outside your comfort zone."  And, usually, the reference is intended to mean that in order to grow, try new things, succeed, or get to the "next level" we must step outside of what is comfortable to us. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong?  In this episode, I sit down with NYT bestselling author Kristen Butler, to talk about her latest  book "The Comfort Zone: Create The Life You Really Love with Less Stress & More Flow." In our conversation, Kristen sheds an entirely new light on comfort zones,  and challenges the stereotypical belief that they're places of complacency or even laziness. In fact, she wants to redefine what a comfort zone is altogether and have it be a place of growth.

Kristen shares her personal journey from burnout to balance, revealing how our "comfort zones," contrary to popular belief, can be spaces of growth, healing, and happiness. She emphasizes the importance of self-care, gentleness, and expanding the boundaries of comfort zones for holistic, personal development. Kristen wants us to thrive in our comfort zones.

We also dive into Kristen's brainchild, the Power of Positivity,  which she started in 2009  after transforming her life from rock bottom using the power of positive thinking. Today, Power of Positivity boasts an online community of more than 50 million followers.

I hope this episode inspires you to take a closer look at how you view your own comfort zone. Maybe personal growth and getting ahead doesn't need to be as hard as we make it. So, get comfy, tune in, and get ready to experience growth in a whole new way.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When we're in these places that we're calling a comfort zone, we're very unhappy, we're kind of hiding, we're frozen, we're paralyzed, we're afraid to take action and in that place we need healing.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started, and the world needs your light. Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:27

I'm your host, michelle Rios, and I am thrilled to introduce you to my guest this week, kristen Butler. She is a bestselling author. She is the CEO of the power of positivity. She is just a phenomenal person in her own right. She is now speaking. She is also the author of the three-minute happiness journal, the three-minute positivity journal, and her latest book is the comfort zone, and I'm so excited to dive into this because Kristen is going to challenge the way we think about the comfort zone completely. So, without further ado, kristen, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm so grateful to be here.

Speaker 2: 2:11

I appreciate you. Oh, I am so excited. For those who are not familiar with Kristen, first of all, you need to go follow her on Instagram. She's incredibly active there. Not only has she created this platform and community around the power of positivity, which has at this point, how many millions of people were involved in that community at this point? It's just crazy.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Yeah, there's over 56 million and we have power of positivity and then we have some sister pages positive energy, faith, remedies. So, yeah, over the years we've created a lot.

Speaker 2: 2:47

It's amazing and it is. You won't be disappointed. You go there and every day, throughout the day, she is just serving up really soul-nurturing content that will just change the way you feel and the way you think about things. And her latest book is it could not be better timed. As many of you know, I'm new to this entrepreneurial world and it can often feel like hustle and grind, not unlike the world of corporate at times. And yet Kristen, who's been at this for a much longer period of time, is here to tell us about how being in your comfort zone, not outside your comfort zone is actually probably the zone of genius, right in your opinion and experience. I would love to hear, kristen, how you even got there. Could you give us a little bit of the backstory? Wow, yes absolutely, michelle.

Speaker 1: 3:47

So over a decade and a half ago, I was at rock bottom after I had burned myself out for just so many years hustling, grinding and just chasing success, doing what I thought was the best for myself, you know, waking up in the morning and working, and then working until late hours of the night. And so I thought the more effort I put in, the better results I'm going to get. But after many bouts of burnout and hitting rock bottom, I came to a point where I was like I have to do something different, and that's when I started trying something new working less, taking time for self care, nourishing my body because at that point I was putting so much effort into working and, unfortunately, I was neglecting myself. So I was way overweight, I was unhealthy and at that point, when I lost my business, when I hit rock bottom, every area of my life was falling apart. So I was like, well, I had this successful business, but what about the other parts of my life? I was sacrificing everything. That's not why we're here.

Speaker 1: 4:58

And so, as I started to embrace these positive lifestyle habits, I started to be more productive, so I didn't have to work as much, and I started loving myself through the process. Being gentle with myself, wasn't shaming myself for not doing good enough, because, ironically, that's always what I was doing before. And so, as I embraced what I was most comfortable with and I started expanding from that place, my life started to transform and I started to find real success. I was actually happy in what I was doing, and so that's why I no longer believe that we need to be outside of our comfort zone for success, while we can find it there. Often we find burnout, and we're not meant to be here, just constantly burnout like it's the cool thing to do.

Speaker 2: 5:47

Yes, and at the stage of the game, not fun. Let's go into that a little bit deeper. If we can, we can. It's come up time and time again, I'm sure throughout your life too. This idea that growth happens during painful times, like when we're in the quote unquote comfort zone, is not a period of growth. What do you have to say to that?

Speaker 1: 6:12

I don't believe that the comfort zone is a place where we're lazy or complacent or that nothing ever grows because that's not a comfortable place.

Speaker 1: 6:21

We are beings that love to expand, we love to make an impact, we love to be of service, but often when we feel like we're in our quote comfort zone, it's actually when we are afraid to do something, or maybe we failed too much, maybe our mental health is just not where we want it to be, and so when we're in this place, we actually want to embrace the things we're most comfortable with and then expand from that.

Speaker 1: 6:49

So I don't believe that our comfort zone has to be this small static place or a Netflix and chill that can be built in as part of downtime, but our comfort zone should actually be comfortable and what's comfortable to us growth, new things, expansion. So first I want to redefine what a comfort zone even is, because currently, when we're in these places that we're calling a comfort zone, we're very unhappy, we're kind of hiding, we're frozen, we're paralyzed, we're afraid to take action, and in that place we need healing, we need to feel good, to find out how to feel good. And so, to answer your question, I want to redefine the comfort zone. But then I also talk about how can we can expand our comfort zone. It's much like stretching like a rubber band, and so there's these layers to us and there's these layers to our lives, and we can continue to level up and get comfortable with more things, because that's really the goal, especially with mental health. If we don't want to burn out or experience anxiety, we want to experience new things and get comfortable with more.

Speaker 2: 8:05

I love your definition. First of all, I think it makes tremendous sense, this idea that somehow the way we've traditionally defined comfort zone being this place where we're literally eating popcorn and watching Netflix and hiding out which I think is a really great analogy is not comfortable. You're actually not in your full potential, you're not really in a full expressive state, you are playing small, and so I love this idea of we need to constantly just as human beings continually expand our comfort zone, our ability to try new things and to put ourselves in situations that slowly, rather than maybe jump off on the deep end, we can make it a more comfortable place to operate, because it's where we are actually creating, and I think that that's often something we forget. We are creative beings and when we talk about that place, I know it's so well because I stayed in it for a long time, even during hustle and grind seasons.

Speaker 2: 9:11

The comfort zone was coming back home and retreating to the sofa, overeating, overindulging in whatever movies or Netflix or what have you, and mindless TV, in order to feel filled back up because I was so depleted. In reality, it was not a comfort zone. I was miserable, and that's the recognition. It's just fascinating to me how did you actually get there and realize, oh my gosh, this is something we really need to, a concept that we have wholly taken in as for granted? We need to really challenge the way we think about this and redefine it, because you've been on this journey for some time the book has just come out this year. When did you really kind of put your finger on the comfort zone as a concept of needing reconstruction, that's?

Speaker 1: 10:09

a great question. First, I want to say, michelle, I loved when you were talking about creating. That's when we really light up and feel our best. I mean, that's so true. So I wanted to comment on that. And then, secondly, a decade and a half ago is when my life really started to transform. I started power positivity, because I'm like, wow, this is so effective living this positive life and adopting these positive habits. But it was only because I had spent most of my life outside of my comfort zone, and that was the advice that I received from well-meaning friends, families, teachers, that that is the way to find success.

Speaker 1: 10:46

I grew up in Pennsylvania and my family was on welfare, and so very early on, I said to myself I need to change my circumstances, so I need to figure out how to do that. And the advice I received was push yourself, step out of your comfort zone, give it your everything, all that you have. And so in that journey of trying to transform everything and change my circumstances, I would find success. I was an entrepreneur. Very early on. I remember at the playground trying to hustle and sell bracelets. You know, it was like I'm going to do this for myself. I would do whatever it took. Yeah, it was like and then I even tried MLM things.

Speaker 1: 11:28

As I got older and turned 18, I did, mary, all these different things, and what I did every single time was I found success. And then I would burn myself out. And so when I was at this rock bottom place, being in bed for two weeks straight, at first it was just gratitude, it was like wow to get myself out of that. It was like I have a bed to sleep on and a roof over my head and I started prioritizing these feelings that felt safe and comfortable, and I had never really done that before. And so it was like, wow, there's something to this, because I started getting out of bed, I started going back out to the grocery store and I started rebuilding by prioritizing what was comfortable. And here, all this time, I was shaming myself for taking any time out to do things that were comfortable for me. It was like work, work, work, hustle, find success.

Speaker 1: 12:25

And over the last 10 years, I started to get triggered when I would hear people say step out of your comfort zone. Because, based on my journey, I was like, wow, that's not the best advice, it's not the only advice that we can give people, and so that trigger started to become journaling and writing, and then I realized that what I was doing was growing my comfort zone through the last decade, and so only it was just the last few years where I started actually writing a book, because about eight or nine years ago I had mentioned to someone like I wonder if I wrote a book on this? And they said that's a terrible idea, kristen. No one would buy it, no one would believe that that even works. And I was like, okay, so I took that advice and kind of started journaling. How did I do this? What was the process? How does this work for other people? And yeah, that's the backstory of the comfort zone.

Speaker 2: 13:19

And I would like to just note to the naysayer from way back when she is a bestselling author now. So congratulations on that and not taking that advice and finding a way to do what you needed to bring to create and bring to the world Ultimately. We talked a little bit about this earlier, but you have met one of my personal development idols, wayne Dyer, through your affiliation with the Hay House, who I know published this book and your first book.

Speaker 1: 13:49

correct, I had self published my first book, my journal, just kind of getting my feet wet to see how I liked it. And then they bought it from me. So, yeah, fantastic.

Speaker 2: 14:00

I am just a little in awe of the fact that you not only met Wayne Dyer through that affiliation and working with Hay House, but you actually were in a writing course with him and he mentored you. For those of you I know a lot of our listeners are very familiar with Wayne Dyer, who wrote countless books on personal development throughout the years, on manifestation your erroneous zones. You'll see it. When you believe it, pull your own strings. I mean so many phenomenal reads. But to be able to be in a mastermind writing course with him has got to be next level. Can you share with us I have a little bit of insight on this what he told you and what he shared with you about what you should write?

Speaker 1: 14:47

Yeah, so actually I'm so glad you brought this up, because this was eight or nine years ago when I got the idea for the comfort zone and it was a group writing course. But yeah, he and Reed Tracy led that and he said that your story is your book. And when he said that, it really hit me. At first I thought, wow, my story is really shameful. That is definitely not my book. I don't know if I can really do that, to go to that level of sharing my story and my pain to help inspire others. But he's so right All of us have a story inside and our pain is our message. It's going to help someone else. And so that was just so profound for me and that was how I started in my writings for the comfort zone, because it was like, okay, this is my story, this is my pain, this is what I went through and that's how I began writing my book. And that was some time, so it took a lot of years. But again, I think that we can't put a time on these things.

Speaker 2: 15:54

I think it had to evolve over time as well, like you gain perspective when you get it out on paper, but then can distance yourself for a little bit to understand really what it all bent and process it, because I think you go back to reliving a lot of these memories and experiences, but with new intel and insight that gives it purpose, which gives it meaning, which allows you to help figure out how that pain actually is A portal to connection with others. So I think it was right on time. It was exactly as it needed to be. Tell me a little bit about, in terms of your own application, of operating in your comfort zone, what has been your daily routine, or maybe your non negotiables that you incorporate into your daily life in order to make sure that you are coming to the table to create at your best.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Yeah, I love that. You know, I believe that self care is just so important, and for me, I love to get movement and exercise in early, and so that's a non-negotiable for me is daily exercise. Also, I love affirmations and studying, and so that's a big part of my morning routine is reading a book and then writing down my notes and journaling around that, because studying is just so good for us mentally and for growth, so that's just a huge non-negotiable for me. Mirror affirmations are huge, because a decade and a half ago I was looking in the mirror and saying what I didn't like about myself, and at that point I nearly hated almost everything. I was so mean to myself and now it's like I'm so specific about what I love about myself, and not an egotistical way, but just in a caring way.

Speaker 1: 17:54

There's so many outside voices in this world and we need to focus on the good and how we feel about ourselves and fill our cup first that we can feel strong when we go out in the world and get some of these mixed opinions right at times, and so that's a big part of it. Family is huge for me. I love being an entrepreneur and working, but having that work-life balance that I can keep healthy relationships. When I was always outside of my comfort zone and pushing myself, I didn't prioritize relationships like I should have, and over time that really adds up, and so I love to prioritize family time. I have some bigger self-care routines than I used to. You know, I love like the sauna and yeah, I'm trying to think of what else, it depends on the day but it's just important that when we need something, we take that time.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Yeah, absolutely. You know. It's really interesting because I think we do live in a culture of contrast, because we do have the hustle and grind culture which I think is very Western culture in general, but in capitalism. But then if you read and study some of the great leaders of these companies, they have very devout morning routines. They may start super early but like the Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates, they are habit readers. They spend time with their family in the morning before the workday starts. They exercise religiously or did Steve Jobs and I was no longer with us but you read about these praise and you're like well, wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 19:44

This is actually not how the average person who's in that time is operating. Because what do we do? The first thing is you pick up your phone and you're checking your email and you're in like response mode. And yet if you look at the most powerful, influential people, they are actually taking time. They're building time into their day to feed their spirit, their soul, their minds, their hearts before they go out into the world, and yet we don't talk about that enough.

Speaker 1: 20:20

I love what you said, and you were talking about our phones. We recharge our phones and we make sure that's always on right, so we have to recharge ourselves and these are the things that do recharge us and we're all different, but really the same. We might have different habits or like different activities, but when we take time for these things, we have that energy to be our most productive and ideas can flow. Creativity is there and when we're working, we're really in this flow state. So if we're always on low battery mode on our phone and in our bodies, the ideas are just gonna feel like so much effort, so much work. It's gonna feel like that hustle and grind, but when we love what we're doing and we're filling our cup, everything's gonna come much easier.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Oh, I love that I talk about this myself, like so many years were spent holding the proverbial boulder. It just came to a point when I was like, wait, I don't need to hold this boulder, I can put it down, that's an option. It is an option. You can put the boulder down, the world won't fall apart. It's interesting how we get into these mindsets from a societal standpoint and we just all then fall into this group, think that this is the way it must be.

Speaker 2: 21:36

But a lot of cultures are not like this. Having lived in Europe and having experienced other cultures one of the reasons by every year, unless every summer, we're doing a quick hiatus over summer in Europe I think a lot of it. For me it's nostalgia of remembering and experiencing life in a slowed down manner and appreciating and savoring meals and strolls through the city like in pedestrian zones. There isn't this sense of rush, rush, rush. Everything just kind of slows down and it is such a homecoming. I lived in Spain for a while, but we get France, Spain, wherever it is. It's that slowed down manner, and particularly in the summer, that strikes you of I have been going at too fast a pace. It's time to take it down a notch.

Speaker 2: 22:32

So I love just the whole notion of promoting a different way of thinking for the next generation, for the current generations that are leading to think about how we do this, and that you can be successful. And redefining success is so important, because what is success if your business is quote unquote thriving but your health is failing and your relationships are non-existent and you generally don't feel well? It's sort of like a non-sequitur, like what's the point and you can enjoy it. It's the age-old issue. I think a lot of Americans who have been successful in creating wealth have found well, I worked an enormous amount of time to create this wealth, but I don't actually have time to enjoy that wealth, so where does that?

Speaker 1: 23:25

leave them. You're so right. It's like let's enjoy the journey, and that is part of the success is enjoying the journey. If we're working every single day to eventually be comfortable, let's find ways to be comfortable now and enjoy what's happening here, because time is so finite, really, in the big scheme of things, it really, truly is.

Speaker 2: 23:50

Okay, I want to throw a quote at you and just get your reaction. Ram Dass just happens to be one of my favorite writers of all time and he has a line that go back too often because you meet people on this journey and you just know that the connection was meant to be, and I certainly feel that way about you. But he says, and I quote we are all just here to walk each other home.

Speaker 1: 24:18

What are your thoughts on that quote? Wow, that is really beautiful. It's like we're lights, but we're going towards the light, right? It's like it's a very spiritual quote. I feel like, yeah, we're in this together. It's really about collaborating and all getting through the finish line together. In this world where we're prioritizing competition, that quote's like, hey, no, we're in this together and let's do this together. I love that. That's beautiful. What do you think the quote means?

Speaker 2: 24:50

I love this. It hits me on two levels, kristin. First of all, I certainly think this interconnectedness that I feel now as an adult, at this stage of my life I've never felt more connected to others than I do now and it's such a welcome change from my early years which I think not unlike you. We have very similar upbrings and experiences. It's very lonely at times and you feel like sort of alone or the odd one out or the ugly duckling or what have you. And now I feel like it really is rising tide lifts all boats experience, in my opinion, at the other level, this walking each other home, I see it on a level of not just back to the light, so to speak, but it's back home to yourself At a spiritual level.

Speaker 2: 25:46

I think so much of the angst and misery that I experienced as a young person and young adult Was just no connection to my spirit, no sense of how to nurture a relationship with self and, in fact, looking outside of myself, because the answers must be out there and the authorities and the experts and what have you are found out there and I'll read the right book or take the right course and find the right path, and it wasn't until I hit a rock bottom and had an awakened moment of going. This is really about an inward journey that we're on, so that Rom Doss quote to me is how people also, as light, shine light on you to find your way back to yourself.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Wow, I love that, and it's so true because in what we're doing, we are coming home to ourselves. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2: 26:47

Tell me the impact this has had being on this journey and personal development and on your family. I'm assuming that your kids are growing up with a very different experience than you did. Tell me how you see this coming to life.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Yeah, you know, I think about it in a way that, yes, I'm providing them more opportunities and knowledge and perspectives, but at the same time, they have their own journey and they have their own personalities and they have their own consequences and things that they have to learn.

Speaker 1: 27:24

So it's always a careful balance of providing, but not like being a bulldozer mom where I'm like let me clear the path for you and you can just walk this beautiful trail right, because we all have our own life lessons and experiences. So it's always this careful balance of giving them opportunities but then also letting them experience them on their own, which is also experiencing failure. So it's definitely a careful balance, for sure, because I feel like when I was a child, I was always going through the weeds and trying to figure it out and creating my own opportunities, and so, being in that perspective, I want to clear that for my children so they don't have to, but then that would really be hindering them and what their life experience is about, because not about what I didn't have and providing that for them. It's interesting. I go back and forth with it all the time.

Speaker 2: 28:18

I love that you're so open and honest about this. Do you think you are helping to bring a different mindset to their experience of life that you did not have right? If only there had been a manual and a guide to get us through those early years, but it's what shaped us right, the experiences that you had, as painful as they were, or exactly what needed to transpire to get you to where you are today. I do think there is talking about expansion, just a tremendous opportunity in changing mindsets earlier about how you can go about creating a life that you love and how to decide what it is that you're going to contribute to the world, and how to think about what you might study or what you might do for a profession in a different way than certainly I was exposed to, which was failure is not an option. There is no safety net.

Speaker 1: 29:19

So go, girl, go, just steady uphill climb until there was a crash and burn moment. You know, I definitely feel like when I see traits or characteristics or things that they have really great Skills around, I encourage them as much as I can and kind of lead them in those directions. But I think they have their own learning experiences too, right? I mean, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, right? Yeah, so it's like, yes, we can provide them with that more positive mindset and give them those tools and thought processes, but sometimes they just need good old failure and we can prevent it as much as we want to, but it doesn't Always happen in their life experience.

Speaker 2: 30:11

Yeah, I have a 16 year old who's now junior year of high school and, as we think about what comes next and the comparison with my own journey, I find him going well. I'm gonna go to a school, just like mom did. I'm myself going bite your tongue Only because I remember the stress and the anxiety around being in those really rigorous academic settings and I asked myself in retrospect Was it really necessary, was it really worth it? And you know, I say here, going there, plenty of institutions you can look at that, certainly one, but there are some over here and like, just be very open-minded, you'll find a place that you'll feel like home and you'll be fine. But I definitely See the need to just allow him to make his own choices as he goes down this and he might Stumble down the path some early to what I did and he'll have his own skinned knees and Is it a weekend moments like we all go through? I appreciate that greatly.

Speaker 2: 31:17

Tell me a little bit about the power of positivity in this amazing community that you have brought together and how people can tap into it. What are your aspirations for this community? It's tremendous and in a World of online social media that is, you know I don't know Instagram's like four billion New users on a daily basis. To actually have the attention of 50 million people coming to be replenished and Find that positivity, find hope in what you are serving up, is tremendous. What are your aspirations for that community?

Speaker 1: 32:02

Yeah, originally, you know, I just wanted to create a group of people that could inspire each other and think more positive, and now that it's grown now almost 15 years it's like today we're thinking about having in person events, and Just in the last year I've created courses, you know, and I've have now three books, and so we've given them a lot of tools to help their mindset, and so over the next few years, I want to give them more tools to help them take action and build that positive lifestyle, because our mental process is the foundation that we lay and then we really Transform through our habits.

Speaker 1: 32:48

And so I noticed that giving them the information is really great, but then being a community together and rising together and doing these things together is where the transformation happens. And so I've been stepping up my own personal brand and coming out and getting on camera, creating courses and doing these things that are really going to help create actual Large transformation within our community. I'm so excited about that because there's just so many people that still feel stuck. And Affirmations are great, quotes are great, reading positive content is great, knowing the research and knowing what you need to do, but the problem is the willpower and the fears around that and creating that consistent routine. That can be difficult, but as a community, together, it's so much easier, and so that will be my goal for the next few years.

Speaker 2: 33:45

I'm so excited for you. It's so needed. We will all be on the lookout as you grow and, of course, in the show notes we're gonna have all the links to Kristen's social so that you can find her and her communities, and I hope that you will all join. It'll just add more to your day in your life. It's some of the good stuff that you find on social right now. Talk to me about books that have transformed your life. You obviously have a book out in the world. It is going to transform the way we think about the comfort zone and how we achieve things and the way we think about success. Undoubtedly, and I cannot wait. You haven't had a TED talk yet, have you know? But that is a goal in 2024. I see that you need a TED talk. This is the next level, for sure, but your book is going to make in a tremendous impact. It's already had great traction. Talk to me about the books that have really shaped your thinking and have been transformative in your journey.

Speaker 1: 34:45

Yeah, you know, early on the four-hour work week was really helpful as an entrepreneur and it kind of validated that need to have that work life balance and so I really recommend the four-hour work week. I love Tim Ferriss's work. I even have the four-hour body. That's also really great book because he takes the research and he's so dedicated to what he writes about and so his books are just always incredible. But I never actually Experienced a four-hour work week, definitely probably when I had a vacation. But it's a goal that I work towards to work less. And I really love how he talks about Outsourcing the things that you don't really like to do or that you're really good at. So I love learning new skills, but I'm happy to outsource to other people who love to do the things that maybe I don't love to do, and that's really helped Me to create a team at the power of positivity and to grow. Because if I had never taken that advice, who knows where we would be. But when you have that power behind you with your team, you can really scale and do bigger things. So I love that book.

Speaker 1: 35:56

You know I also love Louise Hayes work. You know she has so many great books and meditations about healing your inner child and healing your life. Her work has just been so transformative. She even has a book around mere affirmations, which is just so powerful, and when you actually dedicate yourself to that practice, it's just so transformative. So I love her work. You know we in dire we've been talking about that. I also love Napoleon Hill. His work is just so positive and transformative and a lot of it's about growing financially, but that same work can happen for every area of your life. It's just really about creating more abundance. You know thinking grow rich. So I love his work as well. Those would be my top favorite books.

Speaker 2: 36:46

I love that, okay, favorite destination. Where do you go on vacation, christian? Where is either where you've been that you just love? It's a place that you go back to because it just creates feelings of expansion and excitement for what's on your bucket list I love destined Florida.

Speaker 1: 37:05

That's just the beaches there and that area. It's just so fun. There's so many things to do. Bucket list I would say Costa Rica or Hawaii. I just love anywhere where it's super sunny and warm and there's ocean.

Speaker 2: 37:20

I'm with you. I'm so with you. My son's like I really want to get somewhere cold to go to school and I like skiing and I'm like Whose child are you, whose child are you? Your dad and I are these people? Oh my goodness, that's hilarious. I would be remiss if I did not ask you the question I asked. Oh, my guess, which is what does it mean to you to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 1: 37:45

I believe living your extraordinary life is tapping into your full potential, why you're here, how you can be of service to other people and the world, and if you can live in service, then you're living an extraordinary life, whatever that looks like.

Speaker 2: 38:03

I love that question. Okay, how?

Speaker 1: 38:05

can people find you? I love Instagram, so At positive Kristen on Instagram or at power of positivity is my brand. We also have the website which is the same power of positivity, calm and positive christen calm.

Speaker 2: 38:21

We will include all of those links in the show now it's so make sure you check it out everyone. Kristen, thank you so much for your time, for your insight, for your wisdom, for sharing your story. It's been an absolute pleasure to spend time with you today.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Yeah, thank you, michelle. I loved all of the insight and you had amazing questions, so I super appreciate all of that Well.

Speaker 2: 38:44

I hope you'll come back and talk to us about your masterminds and I cannot wait. Wherever you do your TEDx or your TED talk, let me know I will be there cheering you on. No, thank you so much. All right, have a great day, live your extraordinary life. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at Michelle Rios official comm. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.