A giant leap out of my comfort zone

I like to sing. I remember singing rather loudly along with the radio and LPs as a pre-teen. As a teenager I eventually learned how to pick out some of the harmony and discovered I really had a decent alto voice. I sang in the church choir and every now and again I'd get roped into a smaller group. That always made me a little nervous, but I got by.

My daughter, Amy, who is serving an 18 month mission in New Jersey, has a gorgeous voice. Thankfully, I did the right thing as she was growing up and got her to voice lessons starting at the age of 11 or so. Violin and piano eventually went by the wayside, but singing was her love, and she absolutely blossomed. For the year before she left for New Jersey, she taught voice lessons on a part time basis, and even though she was doing it right here in my home, I never managed to carve out the time to squeeze a few in for myself.

When she left last August, I had the urge to do something that would cause me to stretch a little while she was gone. I knew she'd be stretching quite a lot, and I was wracking my brain as to what I could do. I considered giving up chocolate for the entire time she was away, but the end result wasn't enough to motivate me. I wanted something more measurable.

Our sweet and talented friend, Mary, who lives just two doors down, mentioned to me that she'd found a local voice teacher that she was quite pleased with. A bell went off in my head, and I knew that was the thing I needed to do. I got his name and number. However, I was fully tuned into the Itty Bitty Icky Committee. They weren't just talking to me, they were now yelling! "YOU'LL MAKE A COMPLETE FOOL OF YOURSELF! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU'LL SOUND LIKE A COMPLETE IDIOT. IT'LL BE VERY EMBARRASSING. YOU'LL JUST MAKE A LAUGHING STOCK OUT OF YOURSELF." Just little things like that.

Well, because I don't want The Committee to run my life, and I want to surprise Amy when she gets home, I told Mary last Sunday that I would call the voice teacher by the last day of this month. And since I'm all about accountability, I told her to make sure to ask me about it. I knew that would get some action out of me, and it worked. Today it dawned on me that there was only one more day of January and I was right up against the wire. To call or not to call wasn't the question. The question was WHEN to call.

So tonight I told The Committee to take a nice long hike and I dialed the number. My desires to sing beautifully and confidently outweigh the voices that tell me I'll feel foolish. My desire to be accountable when I say I'll do something outweighs the urge to take off running when faced with something a little (okay, a LOT) uncomfortable. I told the nice young voice teacher that I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and make some good progress. Uh, did I really mean to say that???

That's what it's all about, isn't it? Life really is an ongoing process of moving from the comfortable place to an area of learning and growing. I know from past experience that on the other side of that comfort zone is a place of joy and happiness. A place that, because I'm willing to take the hand of my higher self and trust we'll head the right direction, I KNOW I'll be glad to be.

Don't try reaching me next Wednesday at 2 p.m. I will be smack in the middle leaping. It may hurt initially, but before long I know it'll feel GREAT!

InJoy,
Cristi