Yesterday I bought a new camera. I’ve been waiting with anticipation to upgrade for a while. So when an unexpected trip popped on the calendar, I knew I needed a new camera to take along.

After all of the buildup, excitement, hopes and dreams of becoming a photography superstar, I found myself sulking at my computer screen viewing shot after blurry, ill composed shot. A little panic crept in. It felt all wrong – buttons and dials in places where buttons and dials were not before. The new bag is even weird. It’s a funky slingshot style that’ll take me a while to figure out how to harness to my body. I even took off the brand new lens I’ve been drooling over and put my old handy, dandy 50mm back on.

It was a rotten place to be. It wasn’t that I was unthankful or unappreciative – my husband spoils me rotten – no, it was the unfamiliar that threw me.

Then I learned something about myself. I like routine. I like normal. I like knowing where everything is. I like being able to walk to the potty in the middle of the night without having to turn a light on.

This new camera threw a kink into my normal. I would have to learn how to use the new camera and all the fangled stuff it boasts, all the fangled stuff I’d longed for, all the buttons and dials that would supposedly push me to the next level of photography excellence.

In the middle of my little freak out it hit me, I was afraid to move ahead. It’s not as if I can’t learn the camera. I’m a smart woman. I learned how to use the one I’ve been using all these years after all. It was more a fear of pushing through in an effort to improve. What if I didn’t improve? What if I stayed in the same spot?

Left to my own devices I probably would’ve stayed right there in the middle of my little freak out, crawled under a rock (with my old camera) and called it day.

But God pushes us out of our comfort zones and onward.

And He has a sense of humor.

Just then, out of the blue, I recalled the words of the legendary Ric Flair, the “Nature Boy” himself…

“To be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man … woooo! … you’ve gotta walk that aisle …”

Not that I’m into fighting or anything – or wrestling for that matter – but I’m gonna walk that aisle, with my new camera in tow.

I’ll figure it out. I’ll meet the challenge and next year I’ll look back and laugh at myself for ever having doubted my ability. It’s a simple lesson, I know, but it applies to so many areas of life. Stay where you are and pass up a chance to move forward, or go for it and see where it leads you.

I choose moving forward.

So what fight do you need to fight? Or what aisle do you need to walk? What has recently pushed you out of your comfort zone?

Or are you waiting for a little nudge?

<nudge>

See ya later! I’ve got a manual to go read.