Stepping Out of your Comfort Zone

Hello, everyone. I have returned from my vacation and am now ready to write about it. It took a few days to figure out what kind of post I wanted to start with, what I wanted to talk about, etc.  Today's post focuses on something that happened the first night we were on the ship; something I didn't think I would be doing. It's also a fun story and I figured that it could serve to be motivational in a sense, so I decided to share.

We arrived on the ship on a Saturday and instantly wanted to know what events were going on, any fun game shows, and things we could do to have fun. Karaoke seemed like it would be a fun idea for that night, so that's what we did. My plan was to watch, but that changed throughout the night. Lots of people went up on stage, sang their hearts out and sang the songs well. I've done theater and have sung in musicals, but I always get stage fright when it's just me in the spotlight. I had no intention of going up on that stage and singing. 

The friends we traveled with also had their older cousin with them and she went up and sang "Baby Got Back," which the entire crowd loved. She was encouraging me to go up and sing a song, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to because I know how nervous I get up there. However, my friend, Daniel, had something else in mind. He signed up me without asking to sing "Shake It Off." I guess you could say I was mad at first, but it was more nervousness than anything else. I didn't think my name would be called in all honestly as they were only doing a few more songs, but alas it was and I didn't want to turn down that challenge. So, I did it. I went up to the front of the room and sang the song. I've sung it countless of times in front of friends and family when it comes on the radio, but I was still nervous and I never settled out of it, so my voice was shaky, but I still sang the song straight through nonetheless. I guess you could say I couldn't 'shake them off' in regards to the slight anxiety I had. I made it through and after I was done, I went back to my friends who I saw were sitting on the floor so I could see them and laughed about it. (They did take videos, but I hope those never make their way to the internet haha.) It was something I wouldn't usually do and I'd done it. 

I'm not sure what caused me to go up on that stage that night. I didn't really think about it when my name was called, so that allowed me to go up there without realizing what I was doing. At some point it hit me that I really would never see these people ever again so I should just have fun with it. I'm glad Daniel signed me up to do it and I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone. It's so important to try new things and have new experiences, even if it is something you couldn't see yourself doing before. 

The whole point of this post is to encourage you all to do the same. You don't have to sing karaoke in front of a decent-sized crowd to do so. Try something new. Don't care what people around you will think. That's the thing that plagues us from doing so many things we enjoy. We care about what other people will think and we can't do that. That's not living. You have to do the things that make you happy and that will allow you to have new experiences. It's scary, I won't lie to you about that, but the pure joy you feel after it happens as you feel a sense of accomplishment overpowers that initial fear. 

I hope you all have a great day and I'll see you all with another post soon.