What Does Your Discomfort Zone Look Like?

by Karen Elizaga | Posted: December 12th, 2011 | No Comments »

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the gym, and there was only one other person there working with her trainer. It being a small space, it’s easy to hear what’s going on. As I’m planking on the floor, I can hear her trainer prepping her for intervals… 20 seconds of full out, high intensity exercise on a cardio machine and then 40 seconds of rest. Not bad, I thought – she gets a long time to chill. But then she started, and I started to feel for her.

About 6 seconds into the first interval, she started to panic. “I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!!” She became hysterical in such a short amount of time, but her trainer coaxed her, at first gently and then pretty sternly, “Yes, you can.” And then she did. 20 seconds done.

The problem for her was that the 40 seconds lapsed pretty quickly. And again, within 6 seconds, that same panic set in. “I can’t!! I can’t!!! I can’t!!!” This time, it was worse. But her trainer calmly and firmly convinced her that she could.

I think this woman did 3 intervals, and then it was over. She did it!! Phew. I was thrilled for her. I’d felt bad, but I also was surprised that she greeted such a seemingly small feat with such reluctance, disbelief and panic.

Fast forward 3 hours later, and I was in my voice lesson. I began my song, only to be stopped within three measures (maybe 6 seconds) by my voice teacher. “You’re not giving enough.” Okay, let’s start again. 6 seconds… “Karen, I know you can get in there more.” Ugh. What does she mean?? Let’s start again. 6 seconds… “Come on, dig deep and keep it right there.” I’m not sure I can do what she’s asking!! What IS she asking??

And yet, I did. And then what came out of my mouth surprised me. It surprised my teacher, even though I suspect she knew it was in there at some level. She was able to get me to dig deep and sing in a way that, for me, was a bit of emotional reckless abandon.

I’m not sure what I sounded like, but it was a lot better than how I started. I realized at that moment that I was no different from the woman on the cardio machine. I was super uncomfortable just letting go – to reach that full out, high intensity exercise – and I held myself back…. from my discomfort zone.

What’s your discomfort zone? For this woman and for me, it took some pressure from someone else to work with it. Both of us, in totally different scenarios, wanted to hold back from it. See if you can hold yourself in that place of discomfort because when you come out the other side, you’ll see how much you are capable of.