Audra McDonald Quotes

I'm a firm believer in doing things that scare you.

Excitement and reward exist only outside your comfort zone. You'll experience neither of them until you make yourself do something you really don't want to do. So what is it that scares the hell out of you?

I like to do something I fear.

Every New Year's Eve, I have a pact to do something I never thought I'd do. So I created this list. You have to free your mind to do things you wouldn't think of doing. Don't ever say no.

When I'm challenged, I grow. I never want to be in a situation where I'm not challenged and not afraid. One of my favorite feelings is stepping into a film and knowing that I'm a little bit afraid of what I have to accomplish.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have gone to Hollywood if I hadn't been offered 'Ugly Betty' because I was a wee bit feart. But you have to make yourself frightened. That's what keeps you alive.

I'm not saying that everyone should swim with sharks, but sometimes you have to jump over your own shadow in order to learn something that you will never forget for the rest of your life. Then you know you can conquer your fears.

I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of 'Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough.

They say that life is tough enough. But I guess I like to make things difficult on myself, because I do that all the time. Every day and on purpose. That's because I believe in disrupting my comfort zone.

If it scares me, it means I'm supposed to do it.

To be held back by fear is to miss out on challenging yourself in different ways.

I think I've gotten to the point in my life where I have to do everything that I'm scared of because you're not going to learn anything if you don't, so you just have to dive in the deep end and see if you can swim.

I'm always doing things that scare me, because I feel like that's how you should live life. If I'm terrified - and I'm often terrified - then I should be doing that. Like trapeze class, or singing in front of 5,000 people.

The best things happen at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.

My advice to teens is to try and do something that scares you every day because it's the only way you can test how far you can really go. Whether it's going out and auditioning for the play or trying out for the basketball team, you have to explore your boundaries and see where you really want to go and the only way you can do that is to break out of your shell.

Nine Inch Nails was an experiment with me in discipline. I realized when I was 23 that I had never really tried anything. Schoolwork came easy to me. I learned to play piano effortlessly. I was coasting. I realized that I was afraid to really, really try something, 100 percent, because I had never reached true failure.

Almost everything we'll ever do in life that is really powerful, that really produces a result in our lives, that quantum-leaps us to a new level . . . requires us to do something uncomfortable. It takes risks to achieve. It's often scary. It requires something you didn't know before or a skill you didn't have before. But in the end, it's worth it. As former Congressman Ed Forman says, 'Winners are those people who make a habit of doing things losers are uncomfortable doing.' Make today your day to start that uncomfortable new habit.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.

Do what you haven't done is the key, I think.

You can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge.

If you don't go towards the thing you fear, you won't be able to say you lived.

I just want to challenge myself and play some different characters.

My comfort zone is like a little bubble around me, and I've pushed it in different directions and made it bigger and bigger until these objectives that seemed totally crazy eventually fall within the realm of the possible.

I need to go where I'm not comfortable. I think that's the artist's job.

I don't know what the future holds. I just try to do roles that I haven't done before.