You never regret swimming in a lake

I love to swim, but I don’t have much tolerance for cold water. At the ocean or a cold mountain lake, I stick my foot in and feel the bone chilling cold. It makes me step back and question if it’s really worth it to get in the water or not. Maybe it would just be easier to go for a walk along the beach or stay on the blanket.

Once I get myself into the the water, it’s always a fresh thrill. I love swimming in the open water and I never regret pushing past that initial discomfort and getting my whole self in. I’ve made myself my own personal mantra to remind me of this: You’ll never regret swimming in a lake.

There are a lot of times in life where you need to jump past that initial discomfort and resistance. You’ll never regret going for a run. You’ll never regret taking a vacation. When I start writing I feel that same resistance. I often tell myself “Just ten minutes a day” because I don’t want to start, but once I get into the work it gets a lot easier. I often go well past ten minutes even on days when I thought I was too tired to write anything.

I think stepping across that threshold of resistance in our recreation, fitness and hobbies is a good way to build the skill of getting out of our comfort zone. We can use that practice in the more serious areas of life. In my professional work, I feel that fear and discomfort before I do an assignment in new settings with new faces, but the challenge of those jobs makes them more thrilling in the end.

Where do you feel resistance in your everyday life? How do you practice doing hard things in low stakes situations to get out of your comfort zone? How do you remind yourself it’s worth it?