No More Comfort Zones

While I have talked about getting out of a comfort zone in speeches and seminars for the last 20 years, there are probably no two people who have challenged my own comfort zones more than Dr. Roy and Frances Hammond. Six years ago, they challenged me and Cheryl to do a week of humanitarian dental work in Central Mexico with them and a group of Crown Council dentists. After that experience, we were hooked. With their excellent leadership, Crown Council members everywhere have now contributed thousands of hours and dollars through participation in our collective dental humanitarian efforts in the Dominican Republic and other parts of the world. The vision for what can be accomplished in these remote parts of the world has been theirs. Their purpose has been to educate, assist and help the people we serve to be self-reliant. Not to just give them a handout, but to ultimately help them help themselves.

Roy and Frances are responsible for another big jump out of my comfort zone – motorcycle riding. Five years ago, they invited Cheryl and I to be on the faculty of their LearningCurves company (www.LearningCurves.net) which provides dental adventure tours on motorcycles combined with dental continuing education. Up until that time, I had never touched a motorcycle! But thanks to their encouragement, it has been one of the most thrilling things that Cheryl and I have learned and done together. Each year for the last four years we have ridden with Roy and Frances along with twenty other dentists for four days on what we have titled our “Miles for Life” ride to raise money for Smiles for Life (www.SmilesForLife.org) benefiting the dental humanitarian work in the Dominican Republic. We leave again on July 15 to rumble through Yellowstone National Park for this year’s ride.

Roy and Frances have created living metaphors for getting out of one’s comfort zone through purposeful change in our lives. Our lives and our personal relationship has benefited immeasurably because of their influence.

This last week, we were saddened by the passing of Frances Hammond. She will be dearly missed by Roy, her family and all of us. We are so grateful for the influence they have had on our lives. It is difficult to say Roy’s name without Frances’s and Frances’s without Roy’s. They are truly an exemplary couple who have walked together, worked together, taught together, and ridden together ever since they were 14 years old. They are a model of what true love and marriage should really be. We are blessed to have them as an example in our lives.

Frances, we will miss you. Roy, we are with you as you carry on the meaningful things that you and Frances have started together. Thanks to both of you for leading the way. Thanks for making a difference in our lives and the lives of the thousands you have touched and served around the world. The world is a much better place because of Roy and Frances Hammond.