Carol's Corner

“Challenge is the pathway to engagement and progress in our lives.” Brendan Burchard

I do like to learn. I believe and often mentor others that life long learning keeps us growing. Sometimes it becomes harder to take my own advice. I forget how important it is to take on new challenges. The safe zone I currently reside in feels comfortable and familiar. But it also can become a place of being stuck with negative thoughts filtering in. It takes someone to say something to challenge me and then check up on whether I accomplish it.

My grandson, Nathaniel, became that person who attempted to help me get unstuck and take up a new challenge. Several years ago he started by challenging my negative style of word choice when it came to writing stories. I had dubbed myself, “the reluctant writer” for I really preferred telling the stories to writing them down. Words do have power.

Secondly, he issued an even bigger challenge. What type of challenge did this young man issue? “Grandma, you should write a fiction story.”

“But I don’t write fiction! I write true stories.”

“Well you should try.” was his final response.

Every time I offered a reason he countered it and told me excuses did not count. There is not such thing as can’t. One year later, we visited them again and he checked on my progress towards accepting the challenge. I had to admit no progress had been achieved. The conversation was a replay from the previous year. I realized he seriously thought I needed to branch out in my storytelling on paper.

“Grandma, you have lots of family stories you tell us. You’ve written a few of them down. Can’t you take some of the others and use them as a basis for a fiction story?”

How did this young man become so smart? How could I keep being stuck in a rut he obviously felt I needed to be booted out of. His grandfather decided to help keep me accountable and at least have me attempt writing fiction. I have now seriously considered the idea. I have written ideas and pages of notes on characters, settings and their struggles. I will take up his challenge, take my own ( and other people’s advice) and get out of my comfort zone. This year I will face my fears and the computer screen during NaNoWriMo and put the ideas and characters onto paper. Even if it never goes beyond family, I will have faced my grandson’s challenge about a new way to be a storyteller.

What has someone challenged you to try? Did you accept the challenge and what was the result? Maybe today is a day you decide to step out of your comfort zone and progress to a new spot on this journey called life.