The Value of Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Many of us have seen the image above circulating the 'net, or at least heard the sentiment recounted. Honestly, up until recently, I considered it an annoying, glib metaphor. Do I really need a visual reminder of how important and crucial it is to face down some of my biggest fears in order to grow, or have a breakthrough???

Apparently I do.

Last night, I had an experience that took me far out of my comfort zone. I learned a couple of important lessons about a culture that is very much removed from my own.

I teach a fitness class I've dubbed "Foundations of Strength" at my local Y. I live in a fairly culturally diverse area of the Bronx where Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Blacks, and Ethnic whites intersect. It's one of the reasons I love living where I do. It just so happens, however, that I live a stone's throw away from one of the largest Jewish communities in the Bronx, Riverdale. This affluent area is markedly different from where my apartment is located, as it looks as though it could be plopped down in any neighborhood in Connecticut or New Jersey and blend in perfectly. In other words, it's basically the suburbs but with City property taxes.

It shouldn't have come as such a surprise to me then that my local Y was not part of the greater YM/YWCA community, but it's own entity: the Riverdale YM/YWHA, or Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association, an orthodox organization. NBD, I thought: a gym is a gym, and after perusing the website, I realized that the Riverdale Y's mission is very similar to that of the other Y's that I am familiar with. It's immersed in the community, promoting arts & culture; providing valuable programming for seniors & youngsters; and offering affordable memberships to those who want to get fit. A great fit for me, a fitness professional eager to stay connected to the community and serve a wide swath of diverse people.

My class is an absolute delight to teach: the students are of all ages, courteous, hard-working, and consistent. I have a solid group of women who come every week and who I see getting stronger and more fit. So when my supervisor approached me with an opportunity to teach a boot camp-style class to 15-18 4th-to-8th-grade orthodox Jewish girls, I jumped at the chance. "Wow," I thought. "How often do you get a chance to expose young girls to exercise, let alone young girls from such a tight-knit community?" Even if I realized it wasn't for me, it's only every other Saturday evening until February. At the very least, it would be a new experience.

I spent hours preparing. As the consummate professional I consider myself, I wanted to have a plan. I wrote everything down, from the progressions and modifications to the work and rest periods: I was prepared. My supervisor told me that since the girls are orthodox, the music I play in class cannot include any bad or foul language. So I scoured my playlists for "G-rated" music like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, and patted myself on the back for being so "in tune" with what tweens and teens are listening to these days.

Fast forward to yesterday evening. Call me naive, but when those girls walked into my class in skirts, tights, and loafers, I was baffled. Yes, I knew that they were orthodox, but every New Yorker worth their weight in cultural awareness knows that there are different levels of orthodoxy even within the Jewish community itself. I assumed--first mistake!--that since the women in my classes and the folks I see around the gym appear less orthodox and more on the reformed side, the girls would be, too. Not so: these girls are ultra-orthodox. In that instant, I knew that I was in for an enlightening experience.

And let me tell you: enlightening doesn't even begin to describe it! Not only did I abandon my entire plan in an effort to corral eighteen 9-13 year old girls and have to fly by the seat of my pants, but I committed some major faux pas along the way. From referring to the "YMCA" instead of the "YMHA" to being schooled by a gaggle of the older girls in the class about how they're not allowed to listen to music with words at all and gasping unbelievingly "But not even Taylor Swift?," it was a night that I will not soon forget. Oh, and it certainly bears mentioning that on top of all that, I forgot the crucial rule about orthodoxy that prohibits young girls from commingling with boys or men when they're exercising. As if it couldn't get any worse, I brought the girls outside the studio because it was stifling and had them do some calisthenics in the hallway. Then I thought it would be a good idea to have them run the stairs, at which point they were forced to run by several young boys in the gym playing basketball--God has a special plague for gentiles like me :-)

So why bother to regurgitate my embarrassment and put it out there for all to see? Well, because this experience was instructive. It certainly got me out of my comfort zone, and while I'm not sure if any "magic" happened, I learned some valuable lessons. Not only did I learn a strong lesson that reinforced the importance principle of cultural relativism, but I was reminded that I am a consummate fitness professional with adequate knowledge to adapt to my surroundings and my audience. This experience may have shaken my foundations a little, but I have come out of it more confident than I was before. There is value to gain in putting yourself out there and trying new things, so I encourage you to step out of your own comfort zone and embrace the chance to get a little uncomfortable :-)