Walking through Central Park one morning, I was headed in a direction I don’t normally go and ran across a group of dogs playing. One was a large German shepherd with a bright orange plastic toy in his mouth. The toy was about the size of two tennis balls put together and then some, and he ran around with this toy in his mouth, chasing after the balls thrown by the human companions of some of the other dogs. As I watched, he zeroed in on a bright green tennis ball and ran to retrieve it. The only problem was that he had his orange plastic toy already in his mouth. As I watched, he dropped the orange toy and picked up the tennis ball. Then, he worked on also picking up the orange toy. He actually succeeded at getting both items into his mouth, and when he ran back to his human companion, he found himself confronted with the demand that he give the ball back. When he dropped the plastic toy, I was amazed to see the tennis ball tucked all the way back in his mouth, almost down his throat. It was hard to imagine that as being a comfortable state of affairs, but he was not very enthusiastic about spitting it out and giving it back, even though he eventually did.

As I walked on my way, I found myself reflecting on the dog’s determination and how he succeeded even if it may have been uncomfortable to do so. That got me to thinking about all the ways in which I sometimes hesitate to engage a task or situation because it brings with it some discomfort, or it stretches me beyond my comfort zone. And, I also thought about how, once engaged, my determination to follow through even in the face of discomfort has generally generated positive and constructive results. I also began to wonder about the number of opportunities I may have missed as a result of not wanting to move out of my comfort zone.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to explore your own determination, and your relationship to moving out of your comfort zone in order to achieve something you want to accomplish or be. The goal here isn’t to force yourself into anything, or to judge yourself for not doing something that you perceived as too challenging. It also doesn’t mean to forge ahead when you have a strong sense that something wouldn’t’ be good for you to do. We’ve all backed away from things – that’s part of being human. Sometimes it’s a good thing we backed away and sometimes it represents a lost opportunity. The invitation here is to get to know better how you engage situations or experiences that require you to dig deeper and draw on determination in some way, in order to accomplish what the situation requires or offers.

Along with noticing those times when you need to call on determination to keep going forward, also pay attention to the times your gut tells you *not* to move ahead and notice how you attend to that awareness, as well. It’s equally important to know when we shouldn’t do something as it is to know when we need to move our of our comfort zone to achieve what we want or need to do.

As with all the experiments, bring along a gentle curiosity about yourself and your process. Learning to drop judgment is one of the gifts of curiosity, as well as one of the major elements of engaging in compassionate self-awareness.