Comfort Zone Challenge: Dinner

I woke up wondering what I would do for the comfort zone challenge. I asked my closest friends and family for ideas, scrolled Groupon and meetup sites. I was coming up blank. I finally decided I would make dinner following a recipe to the tee. I told my daughter, boyfriend and close friend this goal. They all laughed. Their laughter was a sign that it was a perfect goal because they know I don’t follow recipes. My friend asked, “do you even have measuring spoons?”

As the day progressed, I found myself at the office working a little late. Knowing I still needed to go to the grocery store, walk the dog, and other chores, I started to become stressed. I had packed too much into my afternoon. Typical.

My thoughts were racing and I felt my plan to push my comfort zone was being tested by the clock. Plus I had a commitment to myself (and now others). Each day I must push myself outside my comfort zone and I had already decided the day’s challenge. Hell, I even put it on Facebook. It was as good as written in stone.

Shifting my goal would mean failure. My perfectionist self had joined forces with my people-pleaser self and I was going to be the loser in this battle.

Shifting gears and asking for help

I am not sure which was harder, asking for help or going to battle with the demons in my head. However, my tension for trying to get everything done was causing stress on my loved ones. I recognized what was happening and shifted my challenge. I asked my boyfriend to make dinner for me.

Wait! What? Just like a sunset beach walk, how is this uncomfortable? Allowing someone else to make you dinner sounds like a pleasure not a comfort zone challenge! There was a catch, I couldn’t help. I couldn’t hover. I couldn’t even set the table. Not my typical self.

The victory, as it turns out, was in the shift.

Lessons learned from shifting gears

1. Being uncomfortable and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone are two different things. Our comfort zone is our normal routine. It is the range of 4-6 that Colin O’Brady refers to as “comfortable complacency”. I like to refer to this range as the ‘normal box’. It is the box we try to ‘hide’ in to ‘fit in’ because everyone wants to be normal, right? Yet our best life is lived when we push ourselves out of normalcy.

2. When we ask for help, life becomes a lot more enjoyable. By shifting gears and asking for help, all of my tension faded away. POOF! It was gone. Now I could enjoy my evening instead of allowing my stress to dictate it. My stress was stressing other people out as well. By asking for help we were able to enjoy our evening more relaxed.

3. When you ask for help it allows you to accomplish more. While dinner was being made for me, I was able to complete another project. Instead of me trying to conquer 2 things at once, I did one project while he took care of the other. We get more accomplished when we can let go and ask for help. It is not a sign of weakness. It is the smart way to do more.

“When faced with a sink or swim decision, chose to fly”

With love and gratitude,

Rachel