Way Beyond The Comfort Zone at the Winter Wars – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

I wrote recently about some of the benefits of stepping out of, and so expanding, your comfort zone. Moving outside of what is normal and comfortable for you can help boost your confidence and self-esteem and can help you to become more comfortable with being a bit uncomfortable as you grow as a person and take action on your goals. You can start to expand your ability to handle challenges by working through them and coming out the other side, and there a wealth of benefits and positive ramifications that come from truly stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Depending on your goal and the steps you need to take to get there, you’ll likely engage in activities you otherwise wouldn’t, achieve and progress towards goals you’ve set for yourself, learn new things, test yourself a bit to see what you are actually capable of and there are opportunities to enjoy life even more and to experience an increase in good feelings.

Always remembering, of course, that the things you find so comfortable now were once a step outside your previous comfort zone and also involved taking action and expanding your boundaries. And then at some point, your mindset, skills and capabilities caught up and it all became more comfortable and familiar over time.

As a reminder, my own journey well outside of my comfort zone here, involved entering a crossfit competition, getting through the qualifiers, and making it along to the actual competition day. Even before the event itself, there had been many benefits from expanding and stepping out of my comfort zone in this direction. I’d definitely got fitter and stronger and I had to learn new things (sometimes gracefully, sometimes reluctantly!). There were challenges to set, actions to take and obstacles to work through. And there was the massive bonus of taking the journey with some awesome people who it was a pleasure to spend more time than usual with.

And even with all of these benefits under my belt, there was still the seemingly massive step of actually competing against others, of taking on workouts you only got to see for the first time the night before, and of trying to manage all of the thoughts, feelings and logistics that go with performing on the day in a format and environment that I’d never experienced before.

If you’d like to know how the Winter Wars event went for me, I’m covering that here (and as a little spoiler alert, I didn’t have to go out and buy a trophy cabinet afterwards!!!).

You can read the article where I talked about moving out of your comfort zone here: Moving Out Of Your Comfort Zone – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Way Outside of the Comfort Zone 

As I often tell my clients, after any new endeavour or event, you review it and take the positives you can build upon, whilst finding new paths, solutions and strategies to handle future challenges and to help with overcoming future obstacles. After all, few things in life are either zero per cent failures of one hundred percent successes. There are always aspects that go well and things that can be improved.

And so it was with the Winter Wars, where there were many positives yet plenty (and plenty) of things to learn from and that can be done better in the future.

The days leading up to it reminded me of when I used to do marathons. I’d spend week after week pushing myself, training hard and looking forward to the rest days before the event. And every time, when the rest days and easier days arrive, I find myself missing the routine and good feelings of exercising. Somehow rest days seem just as hard to navigate as days when you push yourself.

And here, just as with those race, I woke on the day and engaged in the fine balancing act between anticipation, nervousness and excitement for the day ahead. And in the period when you are just hanging around, and with no routine to guide you, there’s plenty of time to try and work out what to do, where to go, what to eat, when to eat, what time it is, what time you are on, what other competitors are doing, and wondering why on Earth you are even there and did you really sign up for this (!!) and so on. Just like when you do anything new, you get to think a lot about what may or may not work and what you need to be doing.

After a couple of hours of waiting and watching, it was finally time to enter the warm up zone and take a step right next to the competition area. It may seem obvious but standing there, trying to keep calm and composed, is so unlike anything you do in training. The music is blasting out, there are other athletes next to you engaged in the sort of warm up routine that would leave you needing a sit down afterwards, there are people in front of you competing, people cheering them on and a real sense of sensory overload, excitement and energy as you wait through the last few minutes before competing.

The first exercise involved a two rep max barbell thruster. Not being the strongest team, we decided to pace it out and get a score on the board rather than kill ourselves in the first five minutes. I was pretty pleased to get a PB on a move I’ve rarely attempted. We didn’t know it at the time but, as suspected, we came last on this bit, which was fine.

 

 

It was then one minute rest before one of you got on with wall balls, box overs and burpees, while the other was on the assault bike (and then swapping between). The timings suggested we’d have ages on this so it was a bit of a surprise when someone shouted there were only thirty seconds left and I needed to just go as fast as I could on the assault bike with the remaining time! This one was more like the sort of thing I do in training (rather than lifting loads of heavy weights) and we managed to beat a couple of other teams. I think, had we realised how quickly time flies, and if I’d been a bit sharper on some of the moves, we could have pushed that up a bit more.

It was hard work but we had completed the first workout! Our competition was up and running!

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between training and competing is the amount of time you have between the workouts. When I go to the gym or bootcamp, I go and get it done, go home and get on with the day. Here, you have at least a couple of hours between workouts. You want to eat, but not too much (I was not willing to be remembered as the guy who ate too much and then threw it up everywhere!). You want to rest but you don’t want to seize up. You want to watch the action and support your team mates but you don’t want to burn up too much energy. With all of the energy spent in anticipation and during the first workout, I was already starting to feel a bit weary!

The second workout involved even more heavy overhead lifting and, with a sore arm (that’s my excuse anyway), I struggled to keep up with my partner (who seemed to be lifting with ease). We didn’t get through the whole routine and I was a bit disappointed at the time with that, although turned out we weren’t the only ones.

Finally, it came to the last workout and I was so hot and stinking and mentally and physically tired that I struggled to even warm up. For me, the last exercises were a bit of a blur where everything I’d learnt in training went out the window and I’m not sure I knew what I was even supposed to be doing a lot of the time!

But we did it. The two of us got it done!

And somehow I’d survived!

I was beyond tired. I think I somehow managed to smile about it all. And I really, really was in need of a shower.

It was a massive learning curve but well worth it. The fitness levels of the other competitors was immense and the support from the team was amazing (thank you!). It was awesome watching people from the gym and bootcamps working together, smashing it out and then smiling afterwards (and congratulations to Crossfit 115 and Team 175 for their award).

So it may not have been the most glorious of finishing positions but I’m proud that we qualified and that I did it, that I pushed (and was gently nudged by others!) out of my comfort zone and that I gave it my best shot. And a massive thanks to my partner, Glyn, for being awesome throughout!

And there is so much that I’ve learnt and can take forwards for the future…(and I don’t necessarily mean running in the opposite direction whenever someone mentions a future event…).

 

After The Comfort Zone

Late on during the event, I can remember texting my daughter who wanted an update on how it was going. I was pretty sure we were in last so, as I have often told the kids over the years, the result didn’t matter too much because it was better to have tried and failed than to never tried at all. Like so many other parents, there are many, many times when you just have to encourage your children to give it a go and do their best and forget about the outcome.

Yet, whilst I typed that in my hot and very tired state, I don’t actually regard the event as a failure. Sure, we came last but there were so many positives before the day and on the day. It would have been easy on so many (so many) occasions to find an excuse to quit and bail on the whole thing. In any endeavour, when you move beyond your comfort zone there will always be moments when that little voice in your head whispers how you could easily give up and go back to feeling comfortable doing the same old familiar things. As I sometimes tell my clients, feeling a bit uncomfortable and having a few of those thoughts is often a good thing, it shows change is happening and that you are expanding your boundaries.

If you work at it and put the effort in then, whatever the outcome, it can never be a failure. I’ve learnt so much from this experience that will benefit me in my training and in my next competition. I can’t actually believe I’ve actually already committed to another one in 2023!

As you move out of your comfort zone, there are highs and lows, ups and downs, learning, development and time when it seems progress isn’t happening. Sometimes you have to adjust, handle perceived setbacks and find new strategies and solutions. Yet that challenges, that learning new things, the testing yourself , the seeing what you can achieve and the positive ramifications are what life is really all about, isn’t it?

As I’ve said, I’ve already signed up to be part of another event next year. I’m going to take all of the learning from this one and then make sure the next event is going to be even better….

 

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

 

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