By Caitlin Kelly
Time to explore!
It might be emotional — coming out to your family or while transitioning at work.
Or standing up, finally, to a bully or withdrawing from a toxic narcissist.
Or learning how to discuss a tough topic with someone you love.
Or struggling to reach rapprochement after estrangement.
Or visiting a friend who is dying and attending their funeral, making sure their survivors have the support they’ll need afterward.
It might be political –– switching allegiance after decades, maybe generations, of voting for one party and one set of principles.
Or door-knocking and phone-banking to try to get every possible voter to the polls for this crucial election.
Or choosing not to vote at all.
It might be physical — going through chemo, trying to lose (a lot of) weight, trying to stick consistently to a healthy eating and exercise plan.
Trying a new-to-you sport, maybe with a buddy.
Maybe committing to a daily/weekly routine.
Or getting the eye exam/dental checkup/skin check/colonoscopy/mammogram/physical you know you need and keep putting off because…ugh.
(Since late May, I’ve been carefully eating much less 2 days/week, [750 calories] plus consistently exercising. Fun? Not so much. But loving the results!)
It might be financial — living on a very strict budget to finally kill off your credit card debt or student loans or a mortgage.
Or asking for a raise or arguing intelligently for your value as a freelancer in a tight-fisted market.
Or really carefully reviewing your savings and investments, if you have some, to make sure your hard-earned money is working as hard as you are.
It might mean taking on an extra job, or two, to accumulate some emergency savings.
It might be spiritual — leaving a faith community that no longer feels (as) welcoming, looking for another one.
Or maybe another faith entirely.
Or none.
Maybe it’s trying a silent retreat or daily meditation.

It might be intellectual — choosing to try a new way of working or thinking or reading/listening/watching that challenges you. that pushes your brain in another direction.
Maybe you’ll finally try to learn a new language, or a new skill or teach or tutor someone else.
Whatever the decision, it means making a choice. Shedding a prior behavior or set of habits, which only gets more and more challenging the older we get and more attached to those behaviors as the best (or most familiar) way through the world.
We’re blessed beyond measure if any of these choices are indeed choices, not sudden and unexpected terrors we have to face, let alone broke and alone.
Whichever new/scary direction you choose — as we all must if we’re to have a hope of significant growth in our lifetimes (and over and over!) — you may sit on the edge of that metaphorical cliff and think….nope! Nope! NOPE!
Pack a parachute! (Cupcakes? Liquor? A stuffed animal? A supportive friend?)
I hate the phrase “comfort zone” as if its limits were clearly demarcated and immutable.
How about “Here be dragons”, the phrase that once marked ancient maps of the world, indicating places that were unknown or unexplored?
HBD, kids, HBD.
i much prefer, ‘here be dragons’. so good to remember so that we do not live our lives in a safe, static, shell.
🙂
Jose and I are thinking of looking for dragon Tshirts!
This is a fantastic post! It’s timely for me too. I’ve been talking to my kids (10, 9, 7) about “doing hard things” when the world is telling them, “make yourself as comfortable as possible.”
Thanks!
Thanks. 🙂
I don’t have kids, but am glad my parents were pretty strict with me about self-discipline and self-reliance. Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean it’s painful — and somehow the two have become conflated. And, really, why is doing something (briefly, intermittently) painful something to be feared and avoided?
If everyone avoided doing difficult activities, the world would cease to function. 🙂
It’s so easy to avoid the hard work of living like you mean it. All you need to do is look inside and be aware of yourself. You’ll find plenty of dragons and everything you need to tame them. Truly courageous people know this. 🙂 I’ve been buried deep in all the things life throws at a person, but I needed to carve out some time to visit my Peeps! Miss you!❤
Right? Therapy can help — enlisting an ally or simply someone to hold your feet to the fire.
Thanks for finding time for Broadside! 🙂