Trying new stuff is scary. I don't know about every one else, but there is a phase when I am trying anything new that my immediate reaction is that I don't like it. I don't like it because I don't understand it. I don't like it because I am not good at it. I don't like it because it isn't with in my normals. Then I do the same things over and over and over again, until it comes to a point that I feel dull and lifeless. At this point I start to crave trying something new, just so that the regular becomes refreshing.
I think the only way to grow is to move out side of your comfort zone. It is also the hardest thing for me to do. Thankfully I don't have to do it alone. There are people in my life that constantly challenge me to be more than what I am and help me shape the path to which I want to grow. Those that challenge, encourage and inspire me to be more than what I already am are dear to me.
"You'll never change your life, until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in yours daily routine." - John C. Maxwell
Routine is easy. It would be those things that I do all the time.
I am pretty sure that I have procrastination down pat as part of my daily routine. I want to be a person of action and not to grow dull and boring. In order to do that, I have to change the part of my routine that has to do with procrastination and I needed to move out of my comfort zone.
I am the sort of person that takes small steps, and if those small steps don't kill me, then I jump right in. The first step that I took was in and area that isn't a huge stretch of my comfort zone. I stepped into the kitchen. I often get bored with fixing the same things over and over again. My friend Lizzy told me of an experiment that she was trying to run, which involved her using at least one recipe out of all of her cooks books with in a year. Seeing that the first quart of the year is over and I have over 50 cook books in my house, I decided to scale my experiment down a bit and try some of those recipes that I bookmark on Pinterest. If you are going to experiment, I think it is always good to have test subjects, dinner guests were invited.
The menu consisted of
slow braised Pork Ragu with Garlic Gnocchi's,
Endive and Frisee Salad with Oranges and a dessert of
Vanilla Coconut Rice Pudding. It was a tall order for a Sunday dinner, mostly because I had only ever made gnocchi from scratch twice before and never with potatoes, and some of the combinations in the Pork Ragu made me head to the grocery store and look for things that I had never purchased before. Then came the Rice Pudding, it sounded easy, until I realized that I had invited a vegan over for dinner and had to replace the milk with almond milk, which made me really skeptical if it was going to turn out. I spent a day in the kitchen rolling gnocchi and fretting.
It was nerve racking because there is the fear that dinner was going to be horrible and we would have to order out for pizza. It was out of my comfort zone, but it was refreshing and it painful and it was delicious. Everything turned out. Everyone lived, and I learned a couple of new recipes that I will try again.
Next step was to learn a new game. I enjoy playing various board games, and it is an easy routine to play the ones that you already know. My husband came up with a great idea to have a game day. We would invite more test subjects/friends over and make a day of playing new games. With beer and chili with armed ourselves and started to go through the stack of games.
Love Letter is a game of deduction and luck, and only needs a couple of people play. It is a quick game and once you get the rules, it becomes a game of learning how to read other people, and in some way reminded me a bit about poker. You wanted to try and figure out what was in every one else's hand, because that was the difference between winning and losing. It was the perfect game to ease us into other games.
Smash Up was next on the list, and my husband had seen it on Tabletop, so he had a fair idea of what to expect. I had no clue on it and at the beginning I struggled, because I didn't get it immediately. I had thought about quitting the game, because I thought it was just too hard. It isn't a hard game. It just wasn't in my preconceived notions as to what to expect. Instructions on how to play were feeling Greek to me, and everything wasn't clicking. The more I stuck with it and the more turns that passed, the easier it became. I realized that I was having fun at the game and that sometimes I just need to get over my initial dislike of being out of my comfort zone and everything would get easier. The more tense I was about something the harder it would get.
If only I could remember that lesson when I decided to try Zumba. Zumba is an exercise program that is based off of dancing. Zumba helped me remember more things about myself than I had expected, and they weren't positive things. I remembered about how little coordination I really do have. I was reminded of body parts that haven't stretched in years, and I was way out of my comfort zone with people that I didn't know, which is scary to me. I was reminded that I like to be good at things, and I get frustrated when I am not adequate at things. I didn't know any of the dance moves, and there is no baby steps to learning it. You just have to jump right in. By the end of the program I was drenched in sweat and hurt in area's that weren't funny, and was pretty sure that Zumba was an endurance test for a zombie invasion.
I however did not try Zumba alone. And while we sat panting in the car after the end of the class we talked about it. We discussed if we didn't like it because it was new or if it was because we were uncoordinated and felt like idiots. It was a cross of both reasons we decided in the end. Then the big question came up, do we try it again. I find that in order to make something not new, you have to do it over and over again. Since that first class, I have taken another two Zumba classes and will probably continue for a while, because even though I am almost positive that I will never be graceful, the benefits out way the discomfort. I can say that I definitely had a work out. I might be slow to get to know people, but every one in the class seems nice and pleased to see me when I attend, and ever so slowly I am getting better. Is it still out of my comfort zone? Yes. Is it making me a better person and hopefully a healthier person? Yes.
All these new experiments didn't kill me, and no friends were harmed in these experiments. It also brought to light some things that I learned about myself and things that I learned about the people around me, and over all made me a better and some what more interesting person. Will I continue to try new things? I hope so, and I hope to always move in a forward direction, no matter how awkward that my be in the process.
Curse you, Wil Wheaton! Curse you TableTop! Darn you for opening a door to entertainment that gets me away from the television and hanging out with my friends. If not for you I would probably not have wonderful new games to play or be willing to try new games that you haven't featured on TableTop, because they look like fun. Every time I watch TableTop I want to open my wallet and give you all the money and play all of the games. One of the games that has not been featured on TableTop that has made it into the house is Descent: Journeys in the Dark. 
Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a game that my husband researched and picked up. He spent a lot of time painting all of the game pieces. Decent is a dungeon crawler with a hundred different pieces. There is an entire story line that goes with the game and the objectives change with each twist and turn of the story. Each time you play the game the experience from previous boards follow your character to the next plot twist in the story. It sounds complicated and it is, somewhat. It is one of those games, that while it may take a while to set up the dungeon because there are different snap together boards and to set up the tokens and game markers. Once everything is set up, it is actually a pretty smooth game of strategy mixed with chance.
Today we played part of the second mission called The Fat Goblin. We enter into the town of Arhynn to trade and restock supplies when the Goblin Horde ransacks the place and is trying to make off with the harvested crops, which would leave the town destitute in the winter. Not only are there goblins scampering all over the place pillaging the once peaceful village, they brought with them a pack of ill mannered zombie dogs that have fleas and maggots and are running a muck, scaring small children in rough simple clothes. The rudeness knows no bounds. It is not easy being a hero, when stuff like this happens. I am pretty sure that all Grisban the Thirsty wants to be doing is not wielding an axe at the scruffy mutts and would rather be raising a mug and telling drunk tales of the adventure he just came from. A heroes work is never done.
