The Beauty of Discomfort.

One morning, as I was awoken to an alarm at 6, I thought Oh good, it’s Saturday…I can sleep in!  It was a long hard week and I happily settled back into bed. Then, I remembered…today was our HUGS day of service…and I needed to pick up coffee and breakfast and be at HUGS by 7:15am.  All I wanted to do was to close my eyes and pull up the covers and go back to bed.  But, I didn’t.  I made it to HUGS and I had honestly had one of the most amazing days of service ever.

It is the times when we show up when we’d rather stay in bed that we get a chance to experience the full richness of life.  And, this is what being a rotarian is about. Rotarians live life by doing, by showing up, by being present for every uncomfortable moment. It’s very natural to want to do what’s easy and what’s comfortable for us.  Routines make us feel in control. But, as Zig Ziglar says, “We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.”

When you go out of your way to experience new things, you fuel your creativity, you expand your mind, you extinguish your fears, you develop your courage...

Your comfort zone is a beautiful thing, but you will never grow there…so I am challenging everyone to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. Get involved, make the time to get out of the comfort of your office to get to that club meeting, get out of your comfortable bed on a Saturday to volunteer at a project, get our of your comfort zone and offer to chair a service project or to speak to the club about your vocation. Mentor a college student, plant a tree, visit a retirement home! Sure, you will be helping the community and certainly be helping our club…but more importantly, you’ll be helping yourself! So, this year….participate…and bring others with you!  This world needs more of us to do this.  

This year’s RI theme is to be THE inspiration. In this time of divisiveness, uncertainty,  negativity and hopelessness, let’s get up as rotarians and do something. Let’s go out and make good things happen.    Let’s fill the world with hope, fill ourselves with hope.

I will leave you with this last quote. "Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work." 

I look forward to getting to work for all of you.  I am honored and so very humbled to be the President of the Rotary Club of East Honolulu. 

Thank you,

Wendy Chang

President