Lots of things running through my mind’ none of them concrete.  Not sure where to start this morning.

My biggest thought is this fundraiser I have this weekend.  I will be at the dance studio offering discounted prices for my session and donating a portion of th proceeds to the studio to help dancers with scholarships.  It started out as just a fundraiser, but as I will be there, the studio has me doing a few other projects.

One thing I have had the opportunity with, lately is expanding my horizons and pushing myself out of my comfort zone.  It started with the red carpet event; which turned out pretty awesome.  And while out there I was asked to do a photo shoot with new-to-me dancers in a grungy location, which I’m totally digging.  I can’t wait for that one.

But this weekend I am being commissioned to shoot ‘green screen’.  I have never done this before and to be honest, I think it will be the start of a new and fun path for me.  It simply means that I will easily be able to drop the background from the subject and replace it with whatever I want.

So it looks like I will be there for a full day and my day will be completely full.

I always get anxiety going into these things.  Worrying if I will forget something, you know like the Card for the camera!  Because you never forget the big.  It’s the little and necessary stuff.

One time I went for a photo shoot and forgot my flash.  That could have been bad, but thankfully, I pulled it off.  And no one was the wiser, because my preference is always natural light.

I have been researching this weekends shoot.  And though I don’t want to be confident; it doesn’t look too hard.  I have dropped the background many times from a black backdrop and that was a pain.

Either way; I’m going out of my comfort zone of shooting.

In any profession, you get complacent.  And it makes it hard to branch out.  But the problem is; when you become complacent, your work tends to suffer a bit, because why should you put more into something you already know?

Every time I push myself just a little bit further, I grow.  When I was getting ready for the red carpet event, I was talking to a friend who told me to do something EVERY DAY out of your comfort zone.  And I dare say, I have thought a lot about that.

When I look back on the things that were hard, or made me uncomfortable, I see where I grew.  Even when it comes to working out.  I started grabbing weights that made me work harder.  Or I did two more push ups than I thought I could, or I ran just ten steps further than I said I would.  There is always grown there.  And when you grow, you can honestly look back to where you came from and feel successful.

I remember the first Mud Run I did in Camp Pendleton.  It was a 10k (or 6.2 miles) of up hills, fences, trudging through a lake and crawling in a mud pit.  When I finished that run and saw my time, I thought, “My gosh…I did it!!!  If I could do this, what else can I do???”  And then I did a half marathon and went through the same emotions!!

It wasn’t easy.  But I didn’t die.  And I gained a lot from every experience.

Growth is supposed to be uncomfortable.  If it wasn’t we’d all do it!  But most don’t do it because they don’t want to go through the muck.

I get that totally and completely.  But the truth is, complacency isn’t a good place to be for long periods of time.

So think about where you are at and aspire to do something just a little out of your comfort zone.  The worst that can happen is you go back to the safe zone.

Doesn’t hurt to try.

Happy Thursday!