I have a confession to make. I don’t like writing blogs. No, that’s not right. What I don’t like, or rather, what I’m not that comfortable with is writing my thoughts down on paper for all the world to see.
It’s true that I’ve entertained the thought of writing books and stories, but those were for fictions. A blog like this one, one that’s essentially a journal of sorts where I’m “expressing” myself is new to me. In fact, this entire blog is an exercise in doing something outside of my comfort zone.
But that’s exactly the reason why I am doing it.
The human muscle grows when you push or pull against a resistance to a point such that small tears develop in the muscle from the strain. When the body heals those strains and stitches the muslce fiber back together, it ends up growing more muscle tissue and you end up with a bigger muscle. I believe that humans grow as a whole in much the same way.
In fact, it’s not just my belief but the cornerstone of much of the world’s religious and philosophical traditions, as well as being backed up by modern psychological research. It’s the reason why “grit” is the new buzzword in many pedagogical circles for learning and mental toughness is the trait everybody from commandos to CEOs want to cultivate. From Navy SEALs to Green Berets , from corporations to schools, everyone is promoting the idea that in order to do great things, you have to step outside of what you’re familiar with and reach. Reach for something a little bit beyond your grasp, something that makes you stand on your tippy toes to just about touch it with your proverbial fingetips…only then are you actually able to take a step toward the direction of your goal, of greatness, or awesoness.
I’ll be honest. What you’re reading, some 500 words or so, has taken me three weeks to write. THREE weeks! I’ve written emails longer than this in under 15 minutes. I’ve had thoughts pertainng to this topic – comfrot zones – for months, maybe years. Bouncing around in my head, having multiple conversations with myself, I’ve come up with some amazingly witty and profound insights on just this one topic. So I finally resolved to do it. Why now? because I started this blog and this is for my son, and because damn it it’s 2017 and I’ve been meaning to put this down on page for forever. Of course, when I actually sat down to write it, all that brillant wordsmithing evaporated and it was like trying to catch snow flakes with tweezers before they melted or flew away.
But I did it anyway. It was excuciating to do at times, but I made myself do it. Not a comfortable experience.
But, now that I’ve done it, I’m actually very glad that I did. That’s the funny thing about comfort zones. The thing that’s just outside of it is so excruciatingly difficult and hard and painful and scary. That edge of the zone is like an electric shock, or maybe more like a bad smell. You don’t wanna go near it. But once you do, once you take the deep breath, grit your teeth and take the plunge…well, it’s not so bad. Not that I’ve sat here for two hours at close to midnight writing this post, I’m actually having to stop myself from writing too much. Imagine that?
I’m glad this blog is making me write down my thoughts because it’s made me realize that catching snowflakes is tough but ultimately it’s doable. Now that I’ve done this, the next one seems like it won’t be nearly as bad. Let’s let that be a lessons for us all. Stepping out of my comfort zone is still like catching snow flakes, but maybe the next one will be with a better utensil, like a spoon.