Shattering My Comfort Zone

As a teenager I attended a camp affiliated with my church during the summer. I loved going to that camp because it gave me a chance to see friends who lived in other states. But the reason I kept coming back was because it challenged me. One of the foundational goals of that camp was to help push teenagers “comfort zones”. In other words the counsellors and other workers challenged campers to try new things that they may not have attempted before. Many times I was nervous while doing these things, but in the end pushing my comfort zone always made me a stronger person.

Last Saturday night I did not just push my comfort zone. Instead I shattered my comfort zone into thousands of little pieces. About three weeks ago one of my friends at the church I work with told me about a young adults activity that was coming up. They were going to take a dancing lesson! For an hour and a half a trainer would walk them through a dance routine and at the end of the session they would attempt it on their own. These sessions were great for exercise and just having fun so a lot of people decided to go.

When people asked me if I wanted to go I immediately answered with an emphatic no. I have never in my life taken any kind of dancing lessons, and did not want to start. Basically I was embarrassed about making myself look silly by not being able to keep up with everyone else. But my friends all kept encouraging me to come since a bunch of them couldn't dance either. After a few weeks I finally agreed to go. The plan was to go out there for ten or fifteen minutes then watch everyone else.

When I got to the activity Saturday I was a nervous wreck. My nerves weren't helped at all when I realised that there was nowhere to just sit and watch everyone else. Whether I liked it or not I was going through the entire lesson! I put myself in the very back of the group and prayed that I would not break any body parts. After doing some stretches we began learning the routine. At first I felt pretty good about being able to keep up with everyone else without making too many mistakes. But the instructor kept on adding more complex moves to the routine, and I kept trying to move farther back.

Since there were so many of us the instructor split us into three smaller groups. I was in group two but there was not too much room to move because there were so many people in my group. After a break I saw that a lot of people in group three had either moved or left. I knew that getting into group three would give me a lot more room. But group three only had three people while the other groups had about ten. Being in group three would make my lack of coordination really obvious. But I decided to just join the group and have fun.

Towards the end of the lesson our instructor had each group do the routine by themselves. As I watched the first two groups perform I felt sick. It is not easy to hide bad dancing skills when there are only four people in your group! Finally it came time for my group to perform. I took a deep breath, and did the best that I could. There is little doubt that I was the worst dancer in my group but people cheered us anyways.

I left the activity at 8:30 with sweat dripping off my face and my shirt was soaked. My back and legs were killing me when I got up this morning. But I am still happy I went. Because there is a certain satisfaction that comes from challenging our comfort zones. Challenging our comfort zones is not about being the best person out there. It is about forgetting the fear in your heart and just having fun. It is about forgetting the mistakes you made and trying better next time. It is about accepting the challenge and doing your very best. Many of us live our lives believing that comfort zones are supposed to be protected. But maybe they were meant to be shattered.