Marby and Geris aged 4 months

Scary Thought

The idea that we need to create change is a good one, the steps needed to create that change can be scary.  Especially as we all have a comfort zone that we’re rather fond of and the idea of destroying our snuggly old friend is just cruel, so much so we may experience a set of the internal quakes that can be measured on the Richter Scale!

What to do?

What Lies Outside Your Comfort Zone?

Your adventure zone.  The first time I was told this it made the idea of change so much more comfortable, maybe even a little exciting.  After all, it’s my adventure zone and I can control what happens in there.  Plus I can try little adventures first and then build up to the really big stuff.

My first adventure was leaving my first husband, my current adventure is professional public speaker and ‘let’s make politics more people centred’ activist.  All things I could never have done if I hadn’t bought two kittens!

Kittens?

Yep, because when I realised that I desperately needed to change I was at rock bottom.  I was struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, hated everything about my life, couldn’t please anyone, was under the hospital for women’s stuff, and on the verge of clinical depression.  So I got two kittens on the grounds that I had to make something in my life more important than me and what was going on.

It worked like a charm.  It was fantastic to have something to love, something that needed me, and it was so much easier to get up when they needed breakfast and their litter tray sorted out.  The day after they were spayed I had a routine gynaecology appointment, which in that day and age included hard metal, and I just said to the doc “can you hurry up because my kittens were spayed yesterday and I need to get home!”  No nerves, no fuss.

Start Small

You may not want to start as small as kittens, but remember that the first step out into your adventure zone is within your control.  Start as small as you like, gather some strength, and then take another step.  If you’re scared ask yourself one question:

What’s more frightening, change, or more of the same?