A colleague who is thinking ahead to her empty nest years coming up and I have been talking about this idea of intentionally saying "yes" (to social events, hobbies, potentially positive things, etc.) to get us out of our comfort zone and help us discover what exactly we would enjoy in our next chapters. It can get way too easy to hide in our comfort zone and miss out on so many things.
She's not quite there yet with a child still in high school with a demanding schedule so right now she is living a bit vicariously from me and seems to be enjoying hearing about what my next thing will be that I say "yes" to.
Today's hesitation was joining a divorce support group at a church I do not attend so likely will not know anyone or even be familiar with the venue - something I think I need to say "yes" to.
Today's "yes" was filling out the form for a life group at my own church. I had already talked through my hesitations with my pastor a number of a weeks ago and she was going to look at what group I might fit into but I felt I need to take the proactive step to actually fill out the form to make sure they knew this was something I proactively wanted to be a part of.
Other "Yeses" I have said recently even when I really hesitated included an invitation to lunch with mostly people I didn't know at all, singing in a large community choir event at a new location with a new director and mostly people I had never met, and joining a yoga class. Maybe in the spring I'll even sign up for an adult improv class - now that would be quite a leap outside my comfort zone!
I know that every "yes" won't turn into something I love. I might even hate some of these things. But every "yes" will give me more clarity in who I am and what I want my life to look like and that clarity is worth as many failures as it takes to find the successes.
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