Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

I like to give myself adventure goals about once a year. I’m not one for resolutions necessary, but I fully support the adventure in trying new things. 

The easiest way to grow and understand yourself and others more fully is to step out of your comfort zone.  Do it differently, try something you normally wouldn’t try. It’s intimidating. You won’t do it right the first time – and you might even look like a fool. Who are we kidding, you’ll most likely look like a fool.

Expanding your mind and learning new things is essential to living a full life.

This process began for me in 2015 with writing.  This year, I wanted to explore the idea of learning how to properly handle a fire arm –I wanted to learn to shoot a gun.

I’ve always been a little intimidated by guns. I’m not against the idea of gun ownership necessarily (2nd Amendment and all) but there was something about them that left me feeling a little scared. Until recently, I’ve never had the desire to touch or actually use one.
In many cases fear is sourced in ignorance. And I thought it was time to educate and familiarize myself to become more comfortable with firearms. Even if I made the choice never to own a gun, they are a certain part of our society and I would like to at least know how to operate one properly. I think everyone should.

My neighbor, Greg is a member of the local shooting range and has a few guns of his own – he invited me to go with him one day to show me the basics.

The session only took a couple of hours and I learned a lot.

I learned the difference between a pistol and a revolver, how to load each of them and what it feels like to shoot each of them. I learned that the revolver got heavy and I could hardly control the 9mm. And, the ‘itty bitty’ revolver my dad offered to give me was waaaay too hard to load. The size seemed practical, but I’d technically have to keep the thing loaded 24-7 if it was going to be of any use. For me, that one looked like an accident waiting to happen. The .22 seemed about right.  I also learned how many bullets can be loaded into each and to count how many rounds were spent before the gun was empty.

The shooting range was a bit unnerving at first, but you get used to it a few minutes in.

I’ll need more practice of course, but I’m almost comfortable and at least it’s one step in the right direction to knowing more today about something I didn’t understand yesterday.

Increasing your understanding is always a good thing.

How will you step out of your comfort zone today?