It’s 01:30AM and I’m dancing my butt off. With thousands of others, I find myself in an old industry building listening to a DJ who’s playing some real bangers on a Thursday night. It’s summer, it’s warm and life’s great.
I’ve not had a single drop of alcohol but surrounded by all these people in their twenties with a beer or a Redbul vodka in hand – I’m the one going crazy on the dance floor. Which is strange on so many levels, first and foremost because I don’t know how to dance. “Please never do that again,” my sister told me after I came home from my first (and last) hip-hop session a few months ago. But there I am. Yet again dancing like nobody's watching, and I’m not mad about it. While people around me are awkwardly moving their bodies around and constantly checking their phones – I want to turn to them, shake them and scream “just let go”.
Being outside your comfort zone is obviously uncomfortable, but practice makes perfect. Like many others, I hated to fail or look foolish. Who wants to do something they obviously know they suck at? It can even be hard to think why someone wants to do that. Personally, I decided to start stepping out of my comfort zone when I realised I would never be good at anything without trying it out and probably failing five hundred times before I ace it.
I’ve always wanted to be that person who goes on hikes and spends loads of time outdoors. My mum had encouraged me my entire life, but it wasn’t until I was twenty that I thought I should check it out. So, I went out on my own one day. While I was carrying a heavy backpack with a tent and whatnot along the Cornish coastline, my phone died. Did I bring a power-bank? You girl did not. Second time around I brought a friend. Did we have to pack down our tent in the middle of the night during a storm and hike back, because we didn’t check the weather app before heading out? Absolutely. I’m not a hiking expert now, but because of those two events at least I know a lot more about hiking.
And so, I go about my life. I try new things here and there, baby stepping my way out of my comfort zone to make it bigger. Learning to make a raw cake (yes, the first time I wasn’t aware dates had seeds, so I almost lost my teeth chewing dates seeds), going skiing alone, starting a new sport, swimming in ice cold water, going on a date...
We are not born to ace life. We need to practice and try out new things to succeed. And you will look stupid. Believe me, people didn’t applaud me when I accidently took the wrong slope down the mountain and face planted like five times. But the fear of never being able to do something is personally much stronger than the fear of some random people you’ll never see again laughing at you. After a while you’ll not even notice those random people, because you'll simply be busy living life.
Written by Amalie Andersen
