Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone

 The comfort zone is a place where we all live, work and recreate on a daily basis. We work very hard to create a life where we are capable, successful and live with less stress. The challenge with life in the ‘comfort zone’ is that there is very little risk and often times very little learning. I have begun a new class on Copperplate calligraphy. It is a new style of writing that I have never learned before, and it is WAY outside my comfort zone. The nib is different, the holder is awkward and the letters are round and very much like cursive – unlike anything I have ever done before. (Okay, I am bad at it – yikes!) 

My analogy for this experience is like taking someone who has been driving an automatic car for twenty years and putting them on a motorcycle right in the middle of the highway. Wow, is that a change or what!?! Yes, the driver will learn and eventually become comfortable with the new method of transportation, but the first few miles of turns and traffic will be very nerve racking, scary and someone is probably going to get hurt at first. Eventually, that new motorcycle driver will settle into the new groove. THAT is how I felt last night in class. 

And oddly enough, the newness and uncertainty with this new tool, nib and alphabet made me question my other talent and skills. Strange how moving outside of the comfort zone can have such an impact on the security within the zone, and make us question our abilities completely. Why is that? Why do we go there when only one thing is new? I know it is human nature; it is just a disturbing part of being human and being creative. And it totally explains why we stay within the comfort zone to avoid feeling so awkward and untalented…change is hard; learning is hard, new can be uncomfortable and usually is! 

The real lesson here is that change takes time and will disrupt our safe little worlds, but if we don’t change then we are doomed to live our lives within the safe, boring walls we have constructed around our skills, talents and ideas. If we do nothing new, then we may be ‘safe’ but we will be boring people to ourselves and others. No real new ideas will be produced and the work and creativity gets stale and dull. So I encourage you to take that risk, learn something new and go for that idea that you are not sure how to execute…just be sure to wear a helmet while you are driving!