A New Journey - Pushing your comfort zones!

I attended an I Ho Chuan meeting yesterday and blogging is one of the requirements.  While trying to get this started, I stumbled upon the first blog that I ever created the day I signed up for Kung Fu in 2013.  I laughed as I read it, I was so excited and so scared.  I did not look at the requirements before I signed up and that made me more nervous.  My ending comment was "What have I gotten myself into?"

Almost three years later, I have now started another journey in Kung Fu and that is with the I Ho Chuan Monkey team.  This time I reviewed the requirements beforehand and even gained some understanding while assisting the dragon team.  The funny thing is that I still feel excited, scared and nervous while thinking "What have I gotten myself into?".

Many people in your life will influence you.  Your parents may give you new responsibilities, your friends may push you to try new things (and the quality of your friends is shown by these choices, but that is for another blog), or your teacher/boss may push you to do a presentation that you may not be comfortable with.  They are helping you to do things that are outside your comfort zone.

The one thing I have learned in Kung Fu is that I make choices that influence ME and my comfort zones.  My instructors have always been there to guide and teach me, but it has always been up to me to execute.  A prime example is my shoulder rolls.  I could progress through a few more belt colors doing shoulder rolls from a kneeling position.   I can do them on a mat just fine, but remove the cushy mat and my brain starts to add doubt  I could get hurt, I don't have the right technique, blah, blah, blah. so I move back to a kneeling position.  What is this gaining me? NOTHING!  I am taking the easy way out.  So, my goal is to do them from a standing position before my next belt grading and I develop a plan to be successful.

"What have I gotten myself into?" A new, challenging, and exciting  journey that will most certainly push me outside of comfort zones but looking back over the road I have traveled so far, its not quite as scary as I originally envisioned.