Why is it so hard to look people in the eye when I pass them on the street? My default mode is that I just want to look down, like look away, be the person that looks away first, and just look down at the street and not look them in the eye. I don't know what that is, but that's not the way I want to live. I want to be a human and look them in the eye and smile. And this is one small skill that I have actually focused on over the last, you know, couple years. And now I have it down pretty consistently. Like it's a skill that I had to actually think about, but it still takes a little micro injection of courage every single time, which also maybe is kind of good because it makes it exciting and it kind of makes me feel a little bit accomplished when I have that moment of connection. And that at the core is the whole reason why this podcast exists. I've been reflecting over my life in the last couple of years, thinking about what is it that really brings me joy and happiness and makes me feel alive and just gives me that feeling at like the end of the day, you know, when you get in bed and you're like, yes, that was a good day. Like I lived my life today. I want to feel that feeling at the end of my life, you know, like, oh, yeah, that was a good one. That's what I'm working towards. And I want to explore stories of courage and what it takes to dive into that discomfort in big ways and also small ways, and really want to interview people that have done things. Maybe they reinvented their career, switched jobs, maybe they addressed relationship issues that they have and had an uncomfortable conversation. Maybe they overcame addiction. There are so many stories where people have really put themselves through an uncomfortable process, big or small, and then come out better on the other side. And I selfishly want to use this podcast so that I have an excuse to talk to those people. I don't really want to do solo episodes because this is very uncomfortable. Already this is uncomfortable. So I am kind of proud of myself just for doing this, even though haven't even gotten through episode one. But what I really want to do is those interviews and share them, and hopefully other people will find them useful or interesting. This is Mildly Unstoppable. I'm Jessica, and you can expect new episodes every Monday at 7 a.m. That's the pre-commitment that I'm making, and now I have to stick to it. In today's episode, we're going to talk about social courage, just in my own life, like little everyday moments of courage and discomfort relating to other humans. As I've looked back over these past couple years, thinking about what's added to my life, and realized it is kind of that zone of things that push me just past my comfort zone. I think they fall into three broad categories. One is physical, things that push me physically or bring about a little bit of physical fear. Second is skills, things that push me in some type of a skill could be through work, could be personally, learning to play the piano or something. And then the third one that is a really big bucket, and I want to talk about today is social courage, which is yeah, when you pass somebody on the street and you want to look down, but making that choice to fight that and instead do what might be uncomfortable in the moment and look them in the eye and smile. I came about this because I so 2019, COVID happens. I bought a house, which was actually amazing timing, but not because of skill, just because of luck. And so I'm I moved into my house, townhouse, his little townhouse, and then also my company went work from home. So now I was working from home all day and not talking, not talking to people. And also I'm a software engineer. So most of my day of work is by myself. It's not very communicative. And over time, I truly got scared that I lost my social skills. Like I felt like I could not talk to people anymore when you know years go by and when we're at family events or parties, and my dad is there. My dad is just so good at connecting with people and talking with people. And if there's like a conversation, three people, me, my dad, and somebody else, my dad comes up with like the most interesting follow-up questions and seems so engaged. And I am in my head, instead of being present and listening, I'm thinking, like, oh, how does he do that? Like, how does he come up with such interesting questions? Like, I really am interested in this person, but I can't. They'll like fit, they'll stop talking and I just am a blank. I like can't think of a question to ask. So I felt like such a dunce. Like I just could not relate to people at all anymore. And since then, I have put a lot of effort into getting into friend groups, going out more, doing things where I am talking to people, and I have to say, good news, it's not just age. I'm 37, which I know it's my brain is not going yet, but that was a concern of mine. It was, but I think it was a case of use it or lose it. And I wasn't using it. And I think I was actually losing my conversation skills. Whew, thank goodness, got back out into the world and started practicing. Um, and in doing that, I also was kind of playing with courage in other ways, realizing that pushing myself, you know, physically with these skills and especially socially was fun and exciting. I was listening to a book called Stolen Focus by Johan Hari. And he talked about a flow state study, with flow state being a state that our brain gets in when we're pushed just beyond our comfort zone, not so far that we absolutely can't do something because that would be defeating, and not so easy that we can do it without thinking, but something that requires our brain to be engaged. And um, this study was saying that our brains like that. We are wired to enjoy that and we can get in that state, work for a long time, and feel very satisfied. And this study was talking about it it seemed like more skill or task or accomplishment-based things, but it got me thinking, like, I wonder if that's why my brain is more happy when I'm doing that in a daily sense socially. So not really just pushing myself at a particular task, but all day long trying to look somebody in the eye, trying to give somebody a compliment, trying to not run away when there's an uncomfortable question. Like maybe that's why I feel like my life is better lived when I'm pushing beyond my comfort zone socially, um, physically, and with skills. But it also got me thinking, especially socially, like, how did I get here? At what point in time did it become a challenge for me just to speak up? And was I always like this or did I turn into this? And I think as a kid, there were definitely areas where I was shy. Like when I think of going to family events, I remember as a kid really that being something that I would mentally track on the calendar, like, oh, kind of kind of dreading them in a way, but thinking, like, what am I gonna talk to people about? How, what, what, how, what questions can I ask them? What am I gonna say? Like, I was so nervous about having to talk to my family. And granted, my family is big, and there are a lot of very gregarious uncles, aunts, and cousins, like just everybody, a lot of gregarious people. And that was a challenge for me. But then I think of other situations, like in school, where I was pretty confident I would raise my hand. I liked to volunteer answers, I liked to read out loud, like I would just jump in and go for it. And somewhere over time, I think I slid back and back. Maybe just over my lifetime, the little hurts, the little rejections kind of built up and have made me now more living in this state where I just try to blend in, um, but I'd not actually really enjoying it. I think of one of my friends, we were recently talking about this. She had come to a bachelorette party I was hosting. I do love being an activity director. And so it was so special because I got to coach her through things that she had never done before, one being a rope swing into a lake, and then one being a water slide. And, you know, she was nervous, as she should be. These things are, they are truly scary, but she did them anyways. And when she went down this water slide, it's not a little water slide, it's a huge water slide. When she went down this water slide and then she came up out of the water, the look on her face was incredible. She looked like a little kid. Like she was so happy, she was so hyped up. And then that got us talking later on about these things that we do that push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. And she told me that in her life, she's forcing herself to approach guys. She's single, I'm also single, and I actually still can't imagine doing that. That would be something that I haven't tackled yet, but maybe that'll be my challenge for this coming week. But so she's pushing herself to just every single day or as often as she can say something to a guy in public, whether she's actually interested in them or not, but strike up a conversation. And I just thought that was so, so cool that she's doing that. And then, you know, we bonded because I was telling her about the things that I'm doing in my life that are pushing myself and also making me feel alive. And when I'm in travel mode, like when I'm traveling, I feel like this comes so much more naturally. I will talk to people, I'll strike up conversations with strangers. You know, you'll like make a friend for the day, and it's just easy and normal. But then when I get back home, it fades away. Sometimes I will keep it for a little while, which kind of is why I think travel is so good to like get in a mental space and then hold on to that for a little bit. And then you need to re-up. But I'm getting off topic. Yes, when I get back for a while, I will be more open and then it kind of slowly goes away. And I wonder if it's because I feel like doing that in my normal life is more risky because I am gonna see these people every day. If I walk out my door and say hi to somebody, I could see that same person tomorrow. So I'm gonna have to say hi tomorrow and the next day, and I might have to say hi to them forever. And then what if they want to talk? Like, what if every time I see them I have to have a conversation? Oh no, you know, that would be the worst. No. It's not scary. It's actually the the silly thing is I actually enjoy that when that's in my life. I actually do want to have people that I have little interactions with and little conversations. Those really add to my day. Some of my friends do not have this problem. I can think of two of my friends in particular that are so outgoing. I don't think they have this issue with relating to people at all. They ask a lot of questions. It's funny, I went on a trip with both of these friends, and both of them individually were like, oh, I thought I asked a lot of questions, but like she asked a lot of questions. And truthfully, they both ask a lot of questions. But that is what I like about them. One of them, one time at a movie that we went to together, I remember we walked in, and you know, you see the seats, and it was pretty full. There was a woman sitting, she had a free seat on either side of her, and I froze. You know, I was like, uh, uh, like I guess we have to sit on either side of this woman. But my friend didn't, no hesitation. She just walked up to the woman, asked her if she would mind scooting over so that we could sit together, and we sat together. It was so easy. So I hold them, like they're they're an inspiration for me. I think for me to be bold in those ways, it has to be for someone else, and then it's so much easier. I was on a date recently, we were at dinner, an Italian restaurant, we have a lovely dinner, and then at the end, you know, the bill comes and the guy took it, and I could tell something was off. He made a comment about the bread basket being on the bill. And when the waitress came over at the beginning of the date and mentioned the bread, it was in a way where it very much felt like it was complimentary, you know, like bread that just comes with the table. And so when she asked us about it, we said yes. And so I was like, I'm gonna mention it to the waitress. I asked her about it and I explained, like, excuse me, really thought this was free. I mean, end of the story, we did have to pay for the bread. Well, he did, but he commented on how direct and bold I was. But it's funny because if it was me, if it was my money on the line, then I would not have done that at all. If I am in a situation where I'm gonna be paying the bill, I actually am so nervous that I don't even check the bill, even though internally what I would actually love to do is go line by line and look at every single charge, see if tip was included or not. Just I I want to know exactly where my money is going, but I don't do that. I just like quickly put down my credit card and hand it back because I I don't know. I guess I think that if I scrutinize the bill, it's gonna make it look like I don't have money to pay or something. And then I mean, if I did notice something wrong, I absolutely would not say anything. But the moment it's for someone else, I'm like Miss Joan of Arc, just like ready to go to battle. I wish I could have that confidence just for myself, but I do use that weakness sometimes to help me be stronger for myself. Since I know that I would do things for friends that I wouldn't do for myself when I have a moment where I'm thinking something in my head, but I'm nervous to say it out loud or I don't want to speak up for myself. I will think about like what you would do for a friend. And if I would do it for a friend, you know, I should do it for myself. That does help a little bit. And I don't know if that's for everybody or if that's just more of a woman thing, but I think a lot of my friends would say the same. Another area that is always challenging my ability to not be afraid of people and just be a human is at the airport. There's like so many interesting interactions at an airport. But what I'm thinking about right now is when somebody is clearly confused, like they could use assistance. And it's not that I'm some expert business traveler by any means, but I've traveled enough that, you know, I know what to do. And you can tell when there's a family or a group of people who just look confused and lost, like maybe don't know the rules for security, they don't know what kiosk to go to. And sometimes on my worst days, I'll get annoyed. Like I'll I'm standing there. They clearly are confused. And instead of just speaking up and helping them, I'm like standing there annoyed at them, which is so silly. On my better days, I will speak up and I'll say, excuse me, do you need help? Do you know what to do? Kiosk one is open. And then I'm so much prouder of myself. I really like that's the way I want to live. But again, that's another one of those instances where it's not natural to me. So I have to have that little micro injection of like, okay, let's go, let's speak up, let's help. The next level of social courage that I think is even harder and more impactful is speaking up and getting involved when there's a conflict or maybe danger. And this is kind of like dangerous to talk about on a podcast, like telling people, hey, like if there's problems, like get involved. So I'm gonna say this is not a recommendation. I'm not telling you or giving you advice on what to do, but I am gonna tell you about my life and how I want to live and when I have been proud of myself and when I've had regret. In conflict situations, there's even more pressure to blend in than usual. For example, this is not even a conflict situation, but taking the merge lane, like zipper merging makes traffic flow better. It's better for everybody. It's what you're supposed to do, which is when two lanes are going to merge into one. You are supposed to take both lanes to the end and then one car at a time from each lane merge together into one lane. But what happens is people feel, I don't know what it is. Do we think we're being polite? Is it pressure to blend in? I'm not really sure. But there is this very large instinct to just get in, get over to the lane that's gonna be merged into immediately. And you kind of have to tell yourself, no, I'm gonna take the merge lane and you're gonna stand out. And yeah, maybe some people are gonna get mad at you, which is silly. And if somebody else is ever taking the open lane when you're not, you shouldn't be mad at them because they're doing what you easily could have done yourself. You just have to be willing to stand out, I guess. And then, I mean, you can always merge when you're at the end, you always get in. In a bigger example, I can think back to a time when I was on a family trip to San Diego. We were kids, my dad, I guess my dad is clearly on my mind today, thinking of stories about him. So we we were we were in San Diego. We were gonna go boogie boarding. If you've ever been to a beach, you probably know that parking can be pretty challenging. And so we had parked somewhat far, walking to the beach. We're passing this guy who is holding a parking spot with his bike. Clearly, he had like friends or family that obviously were getting a car and gonna come grab the spot. These two moms in a minivan. I just I don't really actually know that they were moms, but they definitely had that vibe. They did not like that he was holding a parking spot. They felt that that was not okay. And their solution was to try to push him out of the spot on his bike with their minivan. So they were ramming him. They were ramming his bike with him on it while he was standing there with their minivan. Now, this is my dad with a bunch of kids. We very easily could have just head heads down, don't speak up, don't do anything, and move on. That is not my dad's MO. He didn't say anything to the minivan moms. He just looked at the guy on the bike and said, We will wait with you. That's all it took. It just took us being there with him to sway the balance. So it was not two against one and now was equal. He wasn't alone, he wasn't as vulnerable, and the mean moms left. And that is a memory that's burned in my brain because that is who I want to be in my life. I think when we're in crowds, you know, I guess everybody thinks somebody else is going to do something. But I heard the phrase one time, if not you, then who? And that's what I want to think of. I want to always assume that nobody is going to do anything. So if I don't do something, then no one will. I do not always live according to this. I think how my life actually goes is that I'll get in the groove, kind of lose my gumption, be floating along life. Something will happen where I don't speak up. Either I see somebody who needs help and I don't stop to help them, or I see, I don't know, something where I could stand up for somebody and I don't do it. And then I regret it. I regret it hugely. And thank goodness for regret because I'm an overthinker and sometimes I don't know what I want, but regret is a crystal clear bell telling me what I actually want. So when I don't stand up for somebody, I get a huge amount of regret and a fresh resolve to never do that again. Fresh resolve that I am going to speak up, I'm going to stand up, I'm going to pay attention, you know, live life paying attention. And then I'll be reinvigorated. So I'll do that for a little bit, and then inevitably it like slowly fades away. And then something happens. I get regret, and then I get it back. That's kind of what the been the cycle of my life. When when I have had instances where I'm freshly reinvigorated and have gumption, man, that that's a special life. I can can say one example of myself that I'm proud of. This was not even really a huge deal, not a conflict, but I was going snow skiing with a friend, and we were first in line for a lift. So we were gonna go out and get on the chairlift. I could see that on the lift in front of us, it looked like a kid and a mom, and the kid was falling off. I was not the only person that saw this. Many, many people saw this. The lifty did not, but nobody was saying anything. And so I got on my knees on the lift and turned around and started yelling at the lifty to stop the lift. Luckily, he eventually heard me, stop the lift, and the kid was hanging off the lift with just his arms. And the lifty just stood there and looked at me. And I was in my mode at that point. So I yelled at him, Go catch the kid, be ready. Luckily, he did not have to catch the kid. The mom got him pulled back up on the chair. But I was proud of that. I felt good about that. I was like, that's what I want to be doing in life. And sometimes, yeah, people think you're nosy, a nosy know it all. They're annoyed that you're like, you know. It can be off-putting to people, but I think that's okay. That's like I think the conclusion I have for myself is I'm okay with that. Or I want to be okay with that. I don't want other people's opinion to sway how I act. I want to be okay looking stupid. There's a comedy show called Impractical Jokers, where a lot of their skits riff off the fact that people will let you push them really far before they'll do anything about it. For example, they'll be in a grocery store and do ridiculous things and really get in people's space and push them pretty far. Like they they can get away with a lot before somebody will even look them in the eye. I think we let people get away with things because we don't want to be the one that looks stupid or rude. I don't know what it is. I I'm gonna have to do some more research to figure out, yeah, like what is it in us humans? Hopefully, I could do an interview with an expert and they could tell us that would be great. Yeah, but that like makes us default not just look somebody and and call them out or yeah, I don't know what it is. It's dangerous too. Like for women, if somebody was falling behind you and you don't want to look stupid or cause a scene, so you just keep walking with your head down instead of turning around, looking them in the face, and just acknowledging, like, I see you, you know, saying hi, so that they know that you're not gonna be easy. Like it's dangerous. So oh yeah, again, this is not advice, but this is how I want to live my life is not being afraid to look a fool. One thing that I've found, one huge gem that has helped me grow so much in this area of social courage and having gumption is improv class. I had a friend many, many years ago. She took an improv class, told me about it. I thought it sounded amazing. And she wasn't doing it because she wanted to be a performer. She was just doing it. I think for her, she wanted to get more comfortable in her job. And so I've had that on my mind. I've had in the back of my mind, like, oh, you should really try an improv class. But it was so scary, so I never did it. Well, I finally went to improv class. I took the first session, it was maybe like two months ago. I'm gonna sign up for another session, so I'll be in it again. And I, oh my goodness, it's been so good for me. It has changed how I interact with people in my daily life. Like it's actually affected my life. For any of you that aren't familiar, when I'm talking about improv, I'm talking about improv comedy, which is building a scene in the moment. There's no preparation, and you are just riffing off with your scene partners, responding to what they say and trying to build a scene that makes sense. Improv really does help you in life. I want to like shout it on the top of the mountains. And a lot of people, I know this because I've told my friends and family this. I've been singing the praises of improv, but the reaction that I get a lot of the time is that, oh, that would never be for me. I could never do that, I would never do that. And I get it because I used to think that too. And I had a little bit of judgment in me because I thought that probably maybe improv was a little weird. It was a little silly, too silly for me. And I'm really glad that I got over myself and tried. Improv helps you so much in life. And I'm going to steal from a TEDx talk that I watched on YouTube. It's called Improv Comedy Will Change the World by Jennifer Hunter. In that talk, Jennifer outlines the guidelines for improv that will translate to your real life interactions with humans. First thing she says, make a connection. You want to connect to what your partner gives you and be on the same page. Second point is listening. Focus on the person that you're with. Don't plan your response. Yeah, that's exactly the advice that I needed to hear when you think about me in a conversation with my dad when I'm planning responses in my head. Shouldn't be doing that, should be listening. Third point, saying yes and keeping positive, keeping ideas generating, keeping yourself open to new opportunities. Fourth, she says, be in the moment. Multitasking makes us sloppy. And if we're in the moment, that helps us to be flexible. A huge example of that for us in today's world is our phones. You know, don't be on our phone, don't be distracted by our phone, be actually present in a conversation and then staying flexible. So there aren't bad ideas. We we might be going down one idea track or building towards something, and someone might throw in a new idea. And instead of just ignoring them and continuing on with whatever we were saying, we should take that in and be flexible and go with them. And then lastly, she says, listen to your inner voice, follow your intuition, which really, you know, just translates to going for it. An idea pops in your head, go for it, say it out loud, speak up. These are all things that I I want in my daily life. So I'm gonna keep going to improv. But the first time that I went, not not even just the first time, like the first four classes, maybe five, I wanted to throw up the whole time. And these classes are long classes, they're like two hours long. So I wanted to throw up for two hours. And sometimes, I will tell you, I did not even participate, besides when I was absolutely required to. On my better days, I made myself do it, but on my worst days, I would not volunteer to do any scenes. And then usually the teacher, he was so good, he would notice and then force me to do a scene. And I was so thankful for that because although I didn't have the gumption to make myself do it, I really did want to be pushed. And so him kind of forcing me, that was really helpful. And a lot of times as an adult, you just don't have that. You don't have the privilege of someone else forcing you to do something. So if you want to grow, you want to learn new things, you want to take chances, you're the one that has to make yourself do it. You don't have a parent that's going to say, Oh, I know you don't want to do this, I know it's scary, but I'm going to make you do that competition or go to that class or try that thing that I know you secretly really want to do. And then you're so happy that they made you try because you turn out loving it. But you don't get that as an adult. I think actually adults in general are far too easy on each other. It's like once you turn 18, people are like, oh, can't challenge them anymore. They're 18. You can't tell them what to do. And not that we should be like going around telling people what to do. But I think we could use challenges as adults. I mean, especially as adults. Oh, rambling, getting off topic. Point is you mostly have to do it yourself. And so I do in my head. I am like my own parent. I nag myself, tell myself, like, I know you don't want to do this, but you have to do this. And it's necessary to make myself do these things that then I'm very glad that I did. Improv being one of the biggest things I've forced myself to try in a very long time. And oh, it's affected my life so much. It's actually shifted the way that I interact with people. The first class, the teacher had us write out these precepts that we chose as a class. So, like these guidelines for how we wanted to act and mindsets we wanted to have as a class. I wish I took a photo, but I didn't. They were things like, like, I will not judge myself or others, take chances, be brave. They were better than that, but you get the idea. And that really mattered to me a lot because I took them very seriously. And every class, he would put the list up on the PowerPoint and tell us to pick one. And I would pick one. It was usually the same one because I never really mastered it. But then I also knew that everybody else had agreed to those same guidelines. So instead of operating off this assumption that people were waiting for me to fail or were going to let me fail, or if I said something stupid or bad, they were just gonna be silent and let me stand there in my awkwardness. I knew that they weren't going to do that. Because in improv, the whole premise is that there are no bad ideas. You, yes, and you go with. So you know that you can open your mouth and whatever you say, it can be bad or it can be good. It really doesn't matter because the group has already decided that whatever you say is gonna be the best thing in the world, they're gonna act like it's the best thing in the world and they're going to go with it. That changed how I saw people in real life. Instead of expecting people to be waiting for me to fail, I started seeing people in a positive light and showing up in a much better way myself because I was ready to jump in with people. And so instead of being the person, well, I still need to work on this, but being the person that's like, you know, somebody's gonna throw out a joke or something. And instead of standing there and kind of looking around, thinking, like, oh, what does everybody else think about this? Let me see what you think before I jump in with anything. I'm not doing that as much anymore. I'm much more ready to immediately jump in on whatever joke you say, like, I'm ready to laugh, I'm ready to take to the next level, I'm ready to be there with you to back you up. And that has made life way more fun. I really enjoy that. That's what I want to keep in my life, which is why I need to keep going to improv. I'm so much better now at being flexible and not being stuck on my own brain track, which is something I do. I like get stuck on an idea and I just feel this compulsion to finish it to the end. And generally, if somebody interjects with a comment or has a new idea, I will brush it aside because I just am so on a one track and I need to finish my idea. But I'm learning to be more flexible. That's an area I can feel myself changing as well. I am just a very logical person. I'm often in more serious mode. So when someone throws out a joke, I freeze. Like I don't know, I don't know how to respond to it. And in the past, what I would do is kind of take the negative. Um think of an example of that. Okay, recently dating a text exchange, we were planning dinner, and he said there from the context of the texting, it was very clear that this was a joke. But he kind of said something like, Okay, great, I'll see you at Taco John's, which is a fast food taco place. Now, in the past, I would not have known how to respond to that. So I would have said something negating it, like, oh yeah, right, or I don't know, something lame like that. But now that I have this new understanding that you can just go along with people, I would respond something like, you know, to like, okay, see you at Taco John's, I'd be like, great, delicioso. You know, I don't know. It's such a silly example, but those little shifts are making it way more fun to be engaging with people. I have a lot of areas that I still struggle with greatly or haven't tackled at all. A lot of it comes up in dating. I have a hard time really being vulnerable and am nervous on first dates. So although I really want to show up as authentically as I can, as I think everybody does, they're just awkward. I have a hard time really being myself. I get nervous and I kind of get like scared of the other person. I don't know why. So that's an area that I really struggle with and hope I can get better. Another thing in that zone is being able to be honest when I know it's going to hurt somebody potentially. So, like, you know, maybe at the end of the date, if I know very well that this person is not a match for me, but they ask me for another date, this is so terrible. But I oftentimes will say yes because I can't in the moment take a breath and then give them my honest response, even though they may not like it. That's something that I would really love to build in myself. I can't believe I'm 37 and I still have a hard time being honest if I think the other person is gonna not like it at all. So I have a lot to work on, is my point. I get uncomfortable with compliments. I someone's trying to have a serious conversation about something uncomfortable, I laugh and will like run away as fast as possible. So lots and lots of room to grow. Um, doing this, actually, doing this podcast episode was scary for me. So definitely counts as a challenge. I it was very rambly, but I made it through, so I'm proud. And thinking through about everything we talked about, I think I know for this next week what I want to challenge myself to do, which is what I talked about earlier on with my friend who talks to guys or will approach a guy. I think that's gonna be my challenge to do for the next week. And then if you want to do something, I think a fun, easy place to start is with complimenting a stranger because you can do it when they're passing you by. Comment on something that you authentically like, but just in passing, be like, oh, I like your jacket. And then keep walking. You don't have to have a conversation with them, just a nice tiny little interaction that makes, you know, maybe two people happy. You could also take the merge lane to the end. Ooh, that could be a fun challenge. Next week, we're going to talk about career reinvention and the courage that it takes to step away from something, to move on to something bigger, better, greater, or just a better fit for you. That's something that I have done several times in my life, and I'm excited to share the things that I've learned from it. Thank you so much. Um, give me feedback if you have any. I don't exactly know how yet, but hopefully I will have some way by the time I publish this episode. TBD. Thank you. Thank you for joining.