The Comfort Zone vs. Our Fears
Why Is It So Hard To Step Out From The Comfort Zone
How many of us have felt a little uneasy while walking out to our stands in the dark? What about climbing higher than you did last season in your stand? The answer is probably more times than we are willing to admit. Our fears and our comfort zone are at the continual battle against each other.
For me, I live in a household full of testosterone. The mantra at my house is “suck it up.”
Growing up as an only child, my parents didn’t teach me to push past my fears.
At an early age, I learned that if you were too scared to try something new you didn’t have to. I was taught it was okay to settle into the place that I call your “comfort zone.”
Hunting for me didn’t start until I was in my mid 40’s. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. It wasn’t that I was against it or didn’t believe in it. My dad was a hunter, but a gun hunter only. So although it was a long tradition in my family, I just didn’t carry any interest in it.
When I got married, to my children’s dad, I married into a bow hunting family. My mom cooked all the wild game Dad brought home. When I became the wife of a hunter I learned how to do the same. Hunting was all around me yet it wasn’t something my tender heart was comfortable with.
Sometimes Life Will Give You A Hard Push Out Of Your Safe Place
In the fall of 2009, my mom passed away from lung cancer. My dad had previously died from heart problems two years prior thus leaving me without any parents.
When you wake up one morning and you’re basically an adult orphan, you begin to contemplate and question many things. Your capabilities for one.
It was an odd time in my life. What sparked my interest in hunting was the one question that kept running through my head. Would I be able to take care of my family if I needed to? Would I be able to kill our food if we were starving?
Turns out that the answer to those questions would end up being YES! It’s here that I want to give all the credit to the man I NOW call me husband. It was his influence and passion for hunting that led me on the hunting journey I am now on. He helped lead me OUT of my comfort zone.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2010 that I actually pulled the trigger of my dad’s Winchester .243. It just so happened to be the first snow of that season. I had been out EVERY day up until that point. I don’t sit still well and I will admit that I had begun to get discouraged. It was a waiting game. Both of patience, to finally see a shooter, and the discipline of waiting for a clear, ethical shot. I had both physically and mentally prepared for that moment.
Now to make a long story short, when the 70-yard moment arose I took it. A little “unicorn” spike came in about 15 minutes after I got to my hunting spot and I dropped him. Funny, he looked A LOT bigger from 70 yards away!
That moment was bittersweet for me because I had never killed anything in my life. Anyone who knows me, even today, knows that I am a tender heart. Killing something is always a little hard for me to do. But at that historic moment, I was both sad and proud.
I think my dad would have REALLY been proud. My mom, on the other hand, would have wondered what on earth had happened to her baby girl. For me, it was a coming of age, almost middle age. I did it by stepping out of my comfort zone.
Over the years there have been many times I have been afraid while hunting. I have had to push past my own fears. One example is learning to use a climbing tree stand. I’m somewhat afraid of heights. However, I am REALLY afraid of falling out of a tree and breaking my neck or back or all of the above.
There’s something a little unsettling about inching yourself up a tree to over 20 feet. Then once you’re up you must twist your bow hanger into the bark. All the while hoisting your bow up in hopes of not falling out.
I’ll admit, that the whole scenario has frightened me many times. However, I continue to do it and continue to push past the fear. Am I better than I was at first? You bet I am. Do I still sweat profusely? Yes, I do.
But I refuse to let fear take hold of me. I refuse to let it keep me from learning further into something I love to do.
This past season I climbed into a hang-on stand that was a little higher than I normally go. I wouldn’t have attempted it had my son not secured it. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the stand was completely safe. Also, I was wearing my harness, so in the event, I was to fall I was secure.
Once I got up into the stand and my stomach stopped hurting. I calmed down a bit and relaxed into the hunt. As I sat there, looking down, I realized that it wasn’t that high and I was okay. And the best part was that I was looking at deer from a new view. It was really pretty awesome and again I had the “proud of myself” moment.
Take That First Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Every time I walk out in the dark, to go to my stand, I am stepping out of my comfort zone.
I don’t know about you but walking in the pitch black is a little unnerving. Every time, I am basically blindly feeling my way to the ladder stand. I know that path like the back of my hand and have made the trek a million times, in the daylight and the dark.
There’s just something about total darkness that I think makes us all a little uneasy.
Am I afraid of running into another person? Absolutely not! Am I afraid of running into a skunk and getting sprayed? Or having a wild boar growl at me? YES! I’ve been out there many a morning and hear deer blow at me and I’m okay with that. Tripping over a skunk and getting sprayed is just something I am not interested in doing.
This year I’ve started strapping a light on my cap when I head out before first light. I hate it because it’s cumbersome but I do it anyway. I’ve seen several skunks, and even had one hang out under my stand. But to date I’ve been lucky to have not ever been “skunked.”
It’s Actually Healthy To Push Past Your Fears
To push past your fears and step out of secure places applies to all areas of your life. It’s not confined to just hunting.
I think it’s healthy to push past your fears when you’re afraid to do something that you want to do. It’s a must when it comes to doing something that you NEED to do.
Like when I held my mother’s hand, as she took her last breath. That was waaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone. I had to literally force myself to push back against my fears. To be in the moment to comfort her, as she was about to make that transition.
Also, having run a half marathon TWICE was way out of my comfort zone because I was afraid of failure. But I “sucked it up” and crossed that finish line TWICE and improved my time the second time around.
“ I think it’s healthy to push past your fears when you’re afraid to do something that you want to do.”
We all have times in our lives when we need to take a step forward in faith. That’s why we call it faith. But we’ve got to trust that God will be there with us and he’ll work it out to our good. If we don’t, our fears will put a chokehold on us. We’ll live from a place of being afraid instead of a place of truly living. Life is meant to be lived.
All it takes is four little words…I can do this!
And then you will.
