Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

There comes a time when you have to throw all fear and doubt out the window and just go for it. "It" can be anything, putting yourself out there emotionally or physically. I believe that stepping out of your comfort zone is one of the best ways you can grow as a person. Feeling the accomplishment of trying something you didn't think you could do or were too scared to do is one hell of a powerful feeling and can do wonders for your confidence.

One of my "its" has been skiing. It's something that doesn't come easily to me and frankly scares the hell out of me. Since moving to Utah in 2009 I made myself the promise that I would try skiing once every season since we're supposed to have the best snow on earth. I have kept that promise, but this year was different. My annual day out skiing was actually fun! Heading up to Brighton Resort with a few friends I went in with no expectations except to try to not kill myself. I fell well over 100 times, but I had fun, there was a real smile on my face. And to top that off, the next day I drug my battered, bruised body to Powder Mountain to go skiing again.

Photo courtesy of thealpinehack

Photo courtesy of thealpinehack

Skiing puts me in an extremely uncomfortable position. It's fast and feels out of control. And as much as I love adrenaline pumping activities, I need to feel like I have some control over what's happening. 

I have cross country skied (even competitively at times) since I was young. We didn't have mountains in Wisconsin, but we sure had some great Nordic ski trails. But cross country skiing and downhill skiing are two different birds. There are a couple things that I believe helped me overcome a lot of the fears that had held me back.

The first step was to find some friendly accomplices to join me on my adventure. Non judgmental, easygoing people who would not only be supportive and encouraging, but maybe even give me a few pointers along the way. The second thing that helped was taking what I knew from cross country skiing and apply that to downhill skiing. There's not very much that transfers over, but knowing how to do the "pizza" was invaluable! To further make things easier on myself, I stuck to the easy runs (and still haven't gotten off the green ones). I knew I needed to get comfortable with the basics of everything on the easy stuff before even thinking of moving on to anything more difficult. 

With sunsets like this... How can I say no?

Taking the baby steps and being able to laugh at myself made skiing enjoyable and much less scary. And skiing, like many other adventure sports, can be as safe or as dangerous as you make it. I know I won't be shredding down any double black diamond runs or finding myself knee deep in back country powder anytime soon. But if I keep working at it, you may just find me skiing (and probably falling) down a blue run in the very near future. 

What's the last thing you did that took you out of your comfort zone?

Any tips you'd like to add to my list?