Move Beyond Complacency

When I lived in Florida in the early 1990’s, I had a training partner who would always say, “…you have to move out of your comfort zone.” This phrase was acted upon whenever we would do squats. We would intentionally step back beyond the lower safety rung of the squat rack. By doing this, we would have to stand the weight back up; there was no choice.

I always liked the metaphor of this act. From time-to-time you have to move out of your comfort zone of safety. We all can become complacent. We get in a rut and routine and find ourselves just going through the motions. It’s in these moments that we need to challenge ourselves. Just as you can become stagnant in a given exercise program; you can become stagnant in anything you do consistently. This is the time to act. One way to move beyond complacency is through the sport of Skydiving.

Like many people I thought Skydiving would be a fun and challenging thing to try (once). When the idea was suggested by a friend, my immediate reaction was “great, I’ll do it.” Early one mid-Spring morning 6 of us take off for a local (small) municipal airport to take part in a 3 hour training course.

After making my first jump I immediately decided to do it again, not because I necessarily liked it, but because it challenged me. I knew immediately that this would make a great form of mental “exercise.” After making it a continuing hobby, it has. Jumping out of a so-called “perfectly good airplane” is definitely one way to challenge yourself and move beyond complacency.