Life Circle 2012 – Pushing the Envelope

The latest task was to do something that took us out of our comfort zone.

To be honest I left my comfort zone behind some time ago, everything that I now do is pushing the envelope. Doing the weekly shop, eating in a restaurant, buying petrol and paying in the kiosk, all of the things I used to do I'm now doing for the very first time again.

There are very few things that I can do that will push me outside my comfort zone, especially ones that I could do within the time available for this task. In fact probably the only things that are left that I could do which would actually take me way out of my comfort zone involve heights.

I really don't like heights.

When I was a teenager I quite happily joined in with hurtling down zip wires, I'd quite happily do that now. However, the one time I ever tried abseiling I couldn't do it and actually climbed down a 6 foot wall rather than abseil down even that short a distance.

When I was at university I joined the rest of the sub aqua club throwing myself off a 30 foot quayside into the sea, admittedly while wearing a wetsuit and plummeting into 20 or so feet of water. I even clambered onto a foot for pillar and threw myself off there. I'd not be able to do that now though.

Despite the impression people might get of me I'm actually quite introverted. It takes a lot for me to do things that people might notice or even to be able to talk to people that I don't know.

Getting out in front of the audience at the Pink Kitten Christmas Cabaret took a lot of courage.

A few years ago I spent some time as a Street Pastor helping people who were out and about on a Saturday night, making sure people got home safely, listening to people if they felt the need to talk and offering help to those that needed it, whatever that might be. Talking to people that I didn't know was a big challenge for me.

So finding something that would stretch me was difficult.

In the end I have found something suitable but I'm not going to share that here as there are other people that need to know about it first. It is going to be a challenge and it certainly will stretch me. At the appropriate time I'll share it.

There is one other thing that would stretch me and that is to abseil down the side of a very tall building. Apparently there's a 200 foot one in Bristol that people are abseiling down in March in aid of charity. Now that really would be pushing the envelope but I'm going to have to work up to that one.

To read how other people got on pop along to Kate's blog.