"Mary, Mary, Why Ya Buggin'?"

Hm...maybe Mary was "buggin'" because she was trying to grow something new in her garden, and it made her a little bit nervous, apprehensive, or scared.

I ran across this quote from Brian Tracy today: "Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new."

And after the week I've had, I agree with it completely. You see, I myself am in the process of learning something new--something completely foreign to me. When I find myself in a position in which I am not confident and/or in which I don't have very much prior knowledge, I tend to get a little nervous and shaky. Most people wouldn't believe that because they tell me that I don't have any shy bones in my body, that I'm very assertive, that I'm at least reasonably smart, and that I know no strangers (meaning I will walk up, say hi, and strike up a conversation with just about anybody).

I find all that odd, because when I'm in new situations like the one I described above, I feel very shy, scared, timid, retiring, taciturn, skittish, bonkers, and blunt as a post. Yep. I think it happens to all of us. But if I'm to take anything away from that quote, it's that the only way I'm ever going to get past that crazy feeling is to go through it--to be open to experiencing that and get out of what makes me comfortable.

For example, let's say I tried out for the game show Jeopardy! (one of my favorites, by the way--I have it pre-programmed on my DVR and have actually learned quite a bit just from watching). If the categories were things like "Shakespeare," "Vocabulary," "Famous Movies," "Romantic Poetry," "80's Song Lyrics," and "Broadway Musicals," I'd be very confident and fast to ring in on that buzzer! "Take that, Trebek!"

But if you made me play on the day that the show featured "Math 101," "World Geography," "Engineering," "Auto Mechanics," "Arthropods," and "17th Century Asian History," count me out. I'd sit there like moldy Cheez Whiz on a stale cracker.

At one point or another, everybody may feel uncomfortable; however, if you really want to grow, you've gotta go ahead and let yourself experience that weirdness, and it will pass. If I actually studied Arthropods, I might wipe out the entire category. Who knows? And so can you!!!!!

So what if, at this moment, you don't know the difference between past perfect and future perfect, between subjunctive and conjunctivitis, between romance and romantic literature, between pathetic fallacy and logical fallacy? You will--if you stick with it! At one point, you probably didn't know how to walk, dress yourself, eat with a fork, or tie a shoe, either, and just look at you now!!!

Here's a new nursery rhyme for you:

_____, _____ (Imagine me, filling in the blank with your name), quite quite wary,
How does YOUR garden grow?

And you answer---

With _________ (ingenious idea 1), _________________ (fascinating fact 2), and pretty ___________________________ (earthshattering epiphany 3) all in a row!"

Let's challenge ourselves to see how we can make our gardens grow this year, shall we?