I thought I’d done the work …. a clean sweep of all my comfort zones a year ago.
I was free, embracing NEW and living life unrestrained and Big!
Whoooaaa…not so fast.
It happened last week.
My daily barre class was about to begin……music up….the conversation I was involved in wrapped quickly… I turned to find a place in the room.
That’s when the waters parted…women the length of the room repositioned themselves to open a path to MY SPOT. My mouth dropped for a split second. I smiled, chuckled and made my way there.
The women on either side of me offered conspiratorial, knowing smiles—“No worries we wouldn’t let anyone take your SPOT.”
I (slightly embarrassed) mouthed, “Thank you.”
We launched ourselves into the warm-up.
The class finished and I studied the area around me—this was MY SPOT. I stood in this exact spot every day, 5 days a week for one year. I shook my head and took it all in.
“Noooooooooo.”
I was still deep in thought as I put on my shoes. “I just realized I’ve stood in the same spot for a YEAR!” I share with a fellow workout mate (who had her own fitness studio for 15 years). She reassuringly patted my arm, “that’s nothing I had women in my classes who were in the same spot for 10 years!” What???!!! “What do you make of this?” I sputter. “Hmmm….. not sure”, she shrugs, “maybe they just felt comfortable?”
Bingo!
Yes it seems once I/we get comfortable an unconscious ‘thing’ happens. We tuck in. We claim. We stay.
In this case I had claimed a 2 by 2 piece of floor and ensconced it with a wall (of maybe barbed wire) judging by the way the waters parted to allow clear access to MY SPOT?
I considered the absurdity of this on and off all day.
The next morning I arrived early and took a new place on the other side of the room. My workout mates entered the room and glanced at me quizzically. “I’m moving around,” I explain. Surprise flashes across each face.
At the end of the class I realized I had a new perspective on the room and had shared an hour of agony (not really we love this workout) with new comrades.
So here’s my lesson(s)—it’s not to keep moving around in my workout class it’s to continually and consciously keep all aspects of life NEW! Because now I know comfort zones are sneaky! They move in and lock in ….when we’re feeling ‘comfortable’. Unless we shake things up, we remain there, trapped with one perspective…one view. Our world begins to shrink instead of expand.
If after having taken these precautions a comfort zone still manages to sneak in and sets up camp….
I vow to FIND it and LEAVE it….immediately.
“I’m outta’ here!”
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