Have you ever tried something new?

Something that you knew you wanted to do, but had never done before, and it scared you a little bit, or maybe a lot, but you went a head and did it anyway?

Getting?out of our comfort zone is how we learn new things. Personal growth is only possible if we stretch our comfort zone. There is always the possibility that we will fail or that things won’t turn out as we planned, but then there’s also the possibility that we’ll be successful and get what we aim for. You’ll never know unless you try!

Last weekend when I was at the USA Weightlifting American Open Championship with my son Peter, I attended the technical meeting along with my team’s head coach to find out what the final count of lifters were and?the lifting schedule for the competition. During the meeting is was made known that there were more lifters than expected for the weekend (over 230) and more sessions had been added in order to accommodate them. More officials were needed to help run the competition. Since I don’t have national credentials as an official I never volunteer to officiate at these national contests, but at this particular contest they did not have enough national officials and? they needed people with local credentials (which I do have) to help with different aspects of officiating the meet.? With the encouragement of one of my colleges, who is a national referee, I volunteered to run the clock at a few of the sessions. He assured me that it would be easy to do.

I volunteered to do the time for one session each day of the contest (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) and I was more nervous about doing that then I was about coaching my son. This was something that I had never done before. And while it sounded easy at first, it really wasn’t as easy as I thought. Each lifter has 1 minute from the time that they call his or her name to the platform to perform the lift and if the lifter doesn’t perform the lift within the time allowed they lose their turn. So if I were to screw up it could cost an athlete?one of their lifts. If an athlete follows themselves they get 2 minutes on the clock instead of?1, so I had to switch the clock back and forth from a 1 minute to 2 minute timer when necessary. Also as soon as the lifter started the lift I had to stop the clock, this was the most important thing because a buzzer goes off at 30 seconds, and if I forgot to stop the clock when the lifter started the lift, the buzzer could go off in the middle of the lift, potentially distracting the lifter and causing him or her to miss the lift.

And in order to make things even more complicated there were 10 minute breaks between the snatch and clean & jerk sessions and 15 minute breaks in between sessions. Technical know how was needed just to switch from the break time to the regular 1 and 2 minute timer. I watched someone do the time for a previous session and I thought I’d be able to do it without a hitch. Well I did it, but not without a hitch, I made some mistakes my first time.?But I quickly learned how to do it properly. By Saturday, I had it down it pretty well and by Sunday I was a pro.? I had learned a new skill and would be able to help out in local and national contests in the future if help was needed.

The whole experience reminded me of what it’s like to stretch my comfort zone, much the way I did when I started going to tax sales and investing in tax liens. I did not have someone to take me by the hand and show me what to do, and yes I was a little bit scared. What if I lost money? What if I missed something when doing? my due diligence? What if I wasn’t doing enough due diligence? What if people knew I didn’t know what I was doing? I didn’t let any of that stop me. I did get a hold of the only book in print at the time, I asked a lot of questions, and I started small. And yes I did make some mistakes, but because I started small, the mistakes I made in the beginning?really didn’t matter.

Sometimes you have to stretch out of your comfort zone to do what you want to do. By volunteering to help, even though I didn’t know what to do, I learned a new skill that contributed to something bigger than myself – a national event in a sport that I love. By going ahead and participating in tax lien investing I learned how the game is played and how to invest my money at a profit, much faster than I could by putting my money in a bank CD, and much safer than the stock market. I didn’t wait until I knew exactly what to do. I knew what I wanted to do, I didn’t know exactly how to do it. Sometimes you have to act when you know it’s the right thing, even if you don’t know how to do it yet.

So when you’re setting your goals for the New Year, I hope that you’ll stretch just a little out of your comfort zone. Whether it’s to participate in your first tax sale, or to do something else that you know you want to do but it just scares you a little because you don’t exactly how you’re going to do it. Just take it one step at a time. Take the first step and don’t worry about the next step until you’ve taken the first step.

When was the last time you stretched out of your comfort zone? What was the outcome? Leave a comment and let us know.