You know where growth takes place? One place and one place only.
Outside your comfort zone!
It’s also where you’ll find adventure, excitement, and a fresh perspective on life.
Old, tried, and true is good. But so is new and different.
Young sporty woman practicing yoga, doing Dhanurasana exercise, Bow pose, working out, wearing sportswear, grey pants and top, indoor full length, yoga studio
I recently took a yoga class. Not just any yoga class, but a hot yoga class. For me, that’s very new and different.
I like to go to the gym, lift aggressively, do HIIT cardio and be done. Yoga has always seemed slow and kind of boring to me. But old injuries from my competitive bodybuilding days flare up more often than I care to admit, and my tight hip flexors and hamstrings were screaming out for me to stretch them.
So yeah, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that yoga or something similar would be beneficial, but my normal routine and comfortable exercise schedule won out day after day, month after month, year after year.
You know what I’m talking about. We’re creatures of habit.
During a recent visit to my naturopath, she suggested the hot yoga. I groaned. Loudly. She wanted me to sweat, and I really hate to sweat. I gave her my objections … slow, sweaty, boring, not all that challenging.
She said I would likely find the class challenging. It was definitely a workout, and the sweating would be detoxifying, not to mention that yoga is mind-calming and heart restoring.
I was skeptical, but decided to step out of my comfort zone and give it a try.
The room was a humid 90 degrees with about 20 students in the room, some veterans in the practice and a couple other newbies.
My naturopath was right. The flow was fast-paced and it required a lot of stamina and core strength to execute the poses and stay with the class. And, guess what. I did it … and kinda liked the experience.
And I actually didn’t mind the temperature of the room. The heat seemed to help me relax into the poses and deepen the work being done. Who knew?!
And there’s the nugget in all this. Who knew? Only those folks who were willing to try it. That’s who.
There’s so much we think we know about things we’ve never experienced.
So what’s next? Goat yoga?
Uh … no, probably not.
Did I like the hot yoga enough to trade in my tried and true weightlifting regime? Nah, not this girl. But, I did enjoy it enough … and experienced enough benefit … that I’ll incorporate yoga into my regular exercise program, likely attending a class once a week.
Okay, so attending a yoga class once a week isn’t exactly mounting an expedition to scale Everest or moving to a place where you don’t speak the language or standing up in front of a room to speak even though you’re scared to death … but the lesson is still clear.
Until you try … until your stretch yourself … you have no idea what you might be missing … and what you might really like and get great benefit from. And if you hate whatever it is … like eating an exotic food … then just move on and never go there again.
You haven’t really lost anything. You can undo most anything you decide to do if you subsequently decide it isn’t for you. But the more fundamental principle is this.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
And that goes for both life and business.
Life is for living, and not always playing it safe. It’s about creation and expansion, not endless repetition as one day follows another with nothing much to distinguish one from the next.
It’s about variety … the spice of life … and exploring the unknown beyond your comfort zone.
Hmmm … I wonder what a nice freezing ice bath would be like?