Comfort Zone

Have you ever tried to do something that takes you outside of your comfort zone? I always say I will try to, but do not recall any instances where I have.

A little background: I was never a big reader growing up. For me, that means I only read when I had to and didn’t read much because I wanted to. I think there was one time when I read the Baby-Sitter’s Club series and maybe a couple others, but I don’t recall reading often. Over the past couple years I’ve been trying to read more. In 2012 I started off with having read maybe 3-4 books within 2 months! Most was read while on a vacation. I slacked the rest of that year and barely picked up a book, I think. But who can remember?! Not I.

I read a book in January and decided that I wanted to try to read 1 book a month. Start small right? Within a couple days of saying that, a neighbor asked a bunch of us if we wanted to start a book club. I normally wouldn’t do this, because I’d feel out of place and did not think it was my type of thing. But then I got to thinking. What better way to get me out of my comfort zone. I would gather with people that I barely knew. We would sit around and talk about the book we read (or would we?), and I would have read a book. I even talked to my husband about it. We both thought this would be a great idea.

So, we had out first book club gathering the other night. I thought it went really well! We started off with a little chit chat and get to know you talk. We had some light snacks and refreshments. We talked a bit about the book. What would have been just an hour, actually was 3.5 hours! (Maybe because it was the first gathering??). I thought it was fun! I enjoyed meeting some of the neighbors and look forward to meeting more of the neighbors throughout the gatherings. We decided this would be a monthly event. At the end of the each gathering the person hosting will randomly choose the next person that will host, and the new host will get to choose the book. I am excited to start reading the next book and look forward to seeing everyone again.

Have you ever done anything outside of your comfort zone?