I really like my comfort zone. Like, REALLY like my comfort zone. I am a creature of habit. I do what I do and I do what I feel like I’m good at, and I don’t like venturing out of it.
I mean, it’s called a comfort zone, right? It’s comfortable. And comfortable is a good thing.
Then I had a friend totally make fun of me, when we carpooled to an event in a city together, and I drove around for AGES looking for parking that didn’t require me to parallel park. Because I do NOT trust myself to parallel park.
I was never someone who was comfortable backing down long driveways, or backing into parking spaces. I could DO it of course, well enough if I had to and certainly I was able to pass my driving test almost 25 years ago. But now (although buoyed by a backup camera), I'm pushing myself to break out of the "whatever is easiest" mold, especially when easy doesn't necessarily make sense.
In this case, easiest definitely did NOT make sense. I finally found a spot, a ridiculous distance away, and in a lot where I had to pay. I paid actual money AND caused us to walk at night AND made us late. All because I didn’t want to force myself to do something I wasn’t confident in.
That’s more embarrassing than parallel parking poorly, right?
AND I’m realizing that Madison is starting to show that tendency too. I don’t know that she’d consciously copying me, but she’s very open to doing things that she’s good at, and almost paralyzed when it’s time to do something she’s not familiar with. THAT is not a habit I want her to start at eight. She’s got a long life ahead of her and developing that “comfort with being uncomfortable” should probably be something we work on now.
So I’m trying to force myself out of that comfort zone when it’s a more relaxed situation. That way, my zone expands, and I show my girls that this is something that’s OK.
That feels like something I can get comfortable with.
