Redefining your Comfort Zone

How do you define your comfort zone?  Is it as simple as the place you feel comfortable?  Step outside it often enough, and that boundary between comfort and challenge gets blurred.  I have spent the last 18 months busting the boundaries of my comfort zone, working at getting comfortable in new places, doing new things.  Today, rowing in my home waters in Seattle, I came full circle within what should be my most comfortable place.

I started rowing here last fall, and a year ago was learning important sculling skills on a chilly Seattle morning.  

Since then I have raced in the single from Canada to Florida.  But after a windy gnarly row on Portage Bay last April, I found myself outside my comfort zone when contemplating taking out a single from the Pocock dock.  I’ve been out in 2x, 4x, 4+, 8+, but avoided the 1x.  Eventually I realized what I was doing, and scheduled private lessons to break through this self-imposed limit. But each time I had one scheduled, the winds tossed my plans out the window.

Finally, on another chilly December morning (though not as cold as the rest of the week), I took the opportunity to join a small group, and I launched a Hudson 1x from the Pocock dock.  The water was glass, the bay filled with several teams taking out 8’s, and a plethora of smaller boats.  I took it easy, toodled around Portage Bay a couple times, navigated around the bathtub, snuck quickly across the mouth of the Cut, and re-defined my comfort zone.  

By the time my lesson started, the boundary was pushed safely back to where it should be, and I could focus on bladework and form.  (Thank you Margaret!)

Moral of the story, most of my comfort zone boundaries are in my head.  Maybe all of them are.  Where are yours?  What are you doing to redefine your comfort zone?  Don’t let the winds ruin your plans.  Keep pushing.  Recognize where the boundary is, and figure out what you have to do to get beyond it (safely).  It may be comfortable inside it, but you don’t grow, and it can get pretty boring.  

Are you making your plans for 2019?  Pick something outside your comfort zone.  Go for it.  It’s fun out here.