Sweet friends,
Time for Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone, 07.2018. The monthly post where I can brag about doing even the tiniest things that are a stretch outside my ‘normal’. Things that make me antsy as my mother would say.
This is my fifth post in the series. In the first one, I explained a little bit about the psychology and benefit of stepping outside one’s comfort zone. If you missed that post, please click here to read it. I like to think of this as opening up my life to new experiences and possibilities. As we age, it is easy to become set in our ways, even rigid. Stepping outside my comfort zone is a way of retaining some of the flexibility and adaptability that comes easier in our youth.
You can read last month’s post here, if you missed it in June. And here’s what I did to S-T-R-E-T-C-H myself this month.
Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone, 07.2018
The steps I took outside my comfort zone in July would probably be pretty common place for some of you guys. But remember that I am shy and a bit socially awkward. Case in point: we have those community mailboxes where everyone on a 2-3 street radius goes to the same place to check their mail. So checking the mail can be uncomfortable for me when someone else is at there at the same time! I often stop to pick weeds or retie my shoe just to avoid having to be at the mailbox beside one of my NEIGHBORS. How sad is that?
Just a little FYI. That’s what we are dealing with here. But I won’t be counting checking the mail as stepping outside my comfort zone! At least not this month.
- Followed directions on Pinterest to make my own photography light box. Used sharp blades (and dull ones, which are even scarier) and did it all by myself. Didn’t even draw blood. A post with photos and step-by-step directions coming up soon.
- Hosted a month-long Instagram photo challenge. To be totally truthful, I did this last year, too. So maybe by next year, it will be old hat to me. Struggled to keep up with posting my photos on a daily basis but over the next few days, will be catching up on the prompts I missed. Here is the graphic for the 31 days of photographs. You can find my pictures on Instagram using #2018SummerInstaPhotoChallenge. Which one is your fav?
- Wandered around in an unfamiliar part of town taking photos of some pretty amazing murals.
- On that same day I wore patterned pants. Pretty big step for me outside the ole comfort zone. And not only wore them but wore them for a job interview in the same unfamiliar part of town where the murals are painted. The area is called El Segundo Barrio or the second ward and is the one of the oldest and poorest neighborhoods in El Paso. The southern most perimeter of El Segundo Barrio runs parallel to the Rio Grande and the wall that separates the U.S. from Mexico, El Paso from its sister city, Ciudad Juárez. My phone automatically changes from giving directions in miles to using kilometers at work because we are so close to the border. And, coincidentally…except, there are no coincidences…this is the area of El Paso where I first started working as a librarian in 1988.
- I was hired for the job at Rio Grande Trade and have been working a week! Working is not out of my comfort zone at all. In fact, I would be inclined to say I am a hard worker. But I am working in the fashion merchandising business now. Kind of. Entering descriptions of new clothing to be sold on the eBay seller’s database. And this is a little different from working in a library. Plus, I am the oldest person working there by 20+ years! This is a picture of the building where I am working. The red brick. The white building next door is a used clothing store. If you could read the license plates on the cars parked in front, 90% would read Chihuahua, Mexico. People cross the border to buy appliance-sized boxes of used clothing.
- And finally, PC and I drank some of our first homemade peach wine. Our very own Bunny Run Winery private label. The name originated because our peach tree grows in a gated area of our side yard where Lauren’s bunnies used to run. The bunnies are now buried there. Think of them as fertilizer for our peach tree. Last winter, we followed this peach wine recipe from Pinterest to mix, ferment and age our wine. Had planned to drink it on our 10th anniversary earlier this month but we weren’t together. PC was working away from the castle in Michigan. So yesterday was the day we chose to try our wine. The wine put quite a pucker on the lips of these two sugary-sweet Moscato lovers. Dry as the Chihuahua desert, it was. But not all bad, especially as you finish up the first glass! Thinking we will combine it with a Moscato to make it a bit more to our liking.
So that’s what I did to keep myself supple and young this month. Ha, if only! Wish that’s all it took!!
Your Turn
Did you try anything this month that was a step out of your comfort zone? Please share in a comment below so I can be inspired by YOU! And if you have a stepping outside my comfort zone, 07.2018 post to share, please link up with us. Just click on the froggy button.
Hope you will take inspiration from the bloggers who are linking-up with me and sharing their stories of stretching and growth. And then mark your calendars because we will meet right back here on the last day of August for another post in this series.
Today, 07.30.2018, is my daughter Brennyn Alexis’s birthday. And tomorrow (which is today for you because it is the day that this post will go live), 07.31.2018, is my daughter Lauren Allegra’s birthday. Saturday, 07.28.2018, was my granddaughter Cadence Ellie’s birthday. We are almost always together for a big beach birthday bash but this year we were together in June for the wedding so couldn’t afford another trip. My heart is with my babies, though, this week. And we have already begun making plans for next year’s birthdays!
Thank you, sweet friends for spending a bit of your day here with me.
Hugs and kisses,
Laura
That peach wine looks delish and perfect for summer! So proud of you for getting out of your comfort zone!
Natalie
Thanks, Leslie, for hosting the link up and sharing your very good examples of stepping out of your comfort zone. Congrats on your new job! Are you working full-time or part-time? I hope it’s not too tiring. I take photos almost every day so I may try to post on IG in August. Have a great week!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Hey Natalie, I am so sorry for being so delinquent in responding to comments. Not sure where my days have gone. Please forgive me.
My new job is part-time, just 8-12, which is perfect. And, I guess the answer to where some of the free time has gone. But I am enjoying it. And enjoyed having a little baby paycheck last week.
If you want, let’s do an Instagram photo challenge together this fall. Want to? We could do a scavenger hunt where people have to find certain prompts and photograph them or we can give them a prompt a day/week. Think about it and let me know.
Kim Sreet
That is so inspiring! You amaze me!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, KIM!!! Thank you so much for coming by and leaving me a kind word. I am so behind on my blog reading and commenting. Please forgive me. So thankful to have met you through GYPO. Love that we connect with pics of our grandbabies. Big hugs to you, dear one.
Dara
You’ve done a lot outside of your comfort zone this month! Congrats again on the new job, it sounds interesting. I love murals – the one in the photo is very nice!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Dara, for the congratulations on my job. I am so enjoying it. And feeling like I have a purpose everyday. Hope I can continue!!
Have fallen off on 52Frames but hope to be back this week. Will be looking for your submission. XO
Jodie
Okay…so I’m going to go out on a limb and say you got the job because of the print pants (well, and your fabulous personality too)!!
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
You doll, thank you for saying my pants/personality helped me get the job. I am more than 20 years older than anyone where I am working and feeling so slow at trying to do the database entry work. Hoping it gets better quick so they don’t fire my dusty old butt!
ShootingStarsMag
Happy birthday to your granddaughter and daughters! It looks like you did a lot of things outside of your comfort zone in July. Good for you! And yay for a new job – I think any new job is always a bit out of your comfort zone – at least for me – because it’s a new place (usually) and new people, etc. I’m definitely an anxious person!
-lauren
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Another anxious blogger…yay for us. I have a theory that a lot of us who blog are kind of uncomfortable in real life social situations. Thank you, sweets, for the birthday wishes for my babies. And the congratulations on my new job. New people are tough for me. But this is kind of strange work environment…most everyone has earplugs in listening to podcasts or music or books. Not a lot of chit chat by the water cooler. Which is actually ok with me!
pat
Thanks for continuing to do this series! And while I’m not sure I’m doing that much out of my comfort zone right now, as I looked back over the last year, I did quite a few things that were…and continue to work on them. Planning an at-home dinner party, going stand-up paddle-boarding and standing up, going to Sunday yoga at the local brewery by myself, wearing “cute clothes” going out. So I will continue to say …. If Leslie can do X, I can do Y! Happy birthday to everyone.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
What a dear comment. Look at all of your plans to stretch beyond your comfort zone. An at-home dinner party could easily be the death of me!! Hope you will share all about it. Proud of you to be doing yoga at the brewery (wow!) all by yourself. Sometimes we are our own best company.
Thank you for the birthday wishes for my gals. XO
Carrie @ Curly Crafty Mom
I just can’t picture you as being shy at all! Lol! That sounds like something I would do to avoid my neighbors. Or sometimes I’m just ‘too busy’ to talk and I know some of my neighbors will talk forever and I think about all the things I could be doing. Terrible, I know! OHHHHH! Peach wine?! Seriously?! Too bad you can’t ship me a bottle of that! LOL! Congrats on the new job!!!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Hey doll!! Is that kitchen about done? I am so behind on my blog reading and commenting. Have missed you. Will get over to your place today to say hi. Oh, I am so shy or just socially uncomfortable. I am good at “hi” and “have a nice day” but that’s it. I hate talking on the phone even worse. Do you talk on the phone?
You sound just like me thinking of what you could be doing if you weren’t having to be polite and make small talk with the neighbors. Nobody’s got time for that business. There are clothes to iron, scrapbooking to do, dinner to fix, books to read, babies to love!!
Sarah @ Foxy's Domestic Side
How fun! Congrats on the new job, and totally outside the library thing! How did you land that gig? So cool! I love this…I’m going to try and think of something to do outside of my comfort zone for next month….
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Sarah, I would love for you to join me for Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone. Please, please? Whatever you do doesn’t have to be monumental by any means or illegal, for that matter!! Just a bit of a stretch for you. Like one time I think you drove somewhere, just you and the kids, for a vacation or to see family when you hubs was unable to go with you. I think I am remembering that right. Something like that would be great. Or trying a new work out. I wrote about barre class in one post. Trying a new restaurant with food you might not normally like. Eating tomatoes is a big stretch for me. Please let me know if I can add you to the email group for a reminder and the link-up code. Our next post will be Friday, August 31.
Thank you for the congratulations on my new job. The gal who hired me posted in our Nextdoor Neighbor email message board. She had advertised on Craig’s List with no luck finding someone. I saw the message in our neighborhood bulletin board and contacted her. It has been a wonderful blessing!!
Gail
Congrats on the job! You didn’t say it, but it’s pretty daunting going into a new workplace at any age – and particularly if the rest are 20 years younger. I had that too, after 20 years at my old place. Coming up to my first year now – I got there!
I’m fascinated to learn more about the photography light box. I will resist the urge to look on Pinterest.
And I’m also pretty shy. If the elderly neighbour and her gardener are out in the garden, I don’t like to go out because it somehow makes me feel embarrassed.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Gail, you get me!! I love that you feel embarrassed or uncomfy to go outside when your neighbor is out. I can manage a hello, how are you and then I am tongue tied.
Thank you so much for your supportive words about my new job. So proud of you to have gotten your job…I remember when you applied. And here we are a year later. There seems to be some friction among the younger employees and maybe the supervisors thought having an older gal would somehow soothe things? Maybe?
Yes, please wait til 08.21 when I share the how-to for the lightbox. Keep resisting the urge to check out Pinterest!! So glad you are interested.
Debs
I find it fascinating to see the kind of places you live near – I had no idea you were near the border (really ought to check out Google Maps!) Clearly those new trousers gave you added confidence and showed them that you were born to work in something fashion related.
I can’t imagine having to go to a communal place to go and get my mail – but I know that I would probably be like you and dawdle along rather than bump into my neighbours while picking up my mail.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Yay, I am so glad that I am not the only one who would avoid mingling with neighbors at the communal mailbox. I kind of have a theory that many of us bloggers are kind of shy in person.
So glad that you find my neck of the woods fascinating. El Paso and far west Texas aren’t for everyone, that’s for sure. But many of the soldiers who get orders for Ft. Bliss Army Post, here in El Paso, often wind up extended their stay here or even retiring here. It is an acquired taste!!
There’s that word trousers (vs. pants) again. Makes me giggle. So enjoy your comments and our friendship!
Sue from Sizzling Towards 60 & Beyond
Great achievements for the month and I love the various ways you are ‘stepping out of your comfort zone’. Well done with the photography box and also congratulations on your new job. It is all happening!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Sue, for the sweet words of support. I have enjoyed the photography but really want to up my game this fall with a class so I can become more confident with my camera settings.
This part-time job has been a blessing…at least for now. Maybe it will be just what I needed to get ahead financially and to feel like I have a purpose again.
Laura
I’m a moscato lover too. I just can’t get around to liking dry wine. I will persist though! It sounds like fun to give making your own a shot! I bet it would make a fabulous sangria too!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
High five, fellow moscato lover! I will drink dry or sweet but much prefer something sweeter. We aren’t sold on our homemade peach wine. I tried mixing sugar into it…ha! Still not crazy about it. Then mixed it with peach moscato, which kind of defeats the purpose of making our own! We need a new recipe for the next time we try it.