Comfort Zones

I've learned in my life that it's important to be able to step outside your comfort zone and be challenged with something you're not familiar or accustomed to.  That challenge will allow you to see what you can do.  -- J.R. Martinez

So on Monday at Masters, when they were doing the starts off the blocks (in preparation for a Masters swim meet coming up), I didn't do it.  I've never actually learned how to jump in the water, and I figured at my age, why bother.  (I know, I know, I'm not that old...and I was a little embarrassed having that thought when some of my fellow swimmers, well into their 60s, got up there like champs.)  I came home and I told my husband that I didn't jump in and that it was fine because between that and learning flip turns the previous week, I was just a little too outside my comfort zone.  Heck, I don't didn't even like to swim...I'm already outside my comfort zone - and now you want me to flip and jump and act like I even dreamed of being on a swim team when I was a kid?  Seriously?  Give my comfort zone a little break here already...

But now, with a few days of perspective behind me, I actually feel kind of stupid for not even trying.  I know that I have spent most of this year (and am planning to spend a lot of next year) pushing my comfort zone, and maybe right after finishing my last real race of 2013 wasn't the right time...but isn't that what life is all about?  I'll never know what I can do unless I try, right?  As long as I don't even try, it is 100% certain that I will never be able to dive into the pool.  In fact, until a couple weeks ago, it was 100% certain that I could never do a flip turn.

I need to remember that being less comfortable for a while will get me a lot further in the long run.