Danger Zone = Comfort Zone

Yesterday marked our first anti-virus edition of our Tiger Challenge tournament. Tournaments tend to be a high anxiety event for many competitors so they are a wonderful tool to help people normalize stepping out of their comfort zone. This year’s version of the tournament may have been online but it was no less anxiety-inducing nevertheless.

I am always amazed at how different we all are when it comes to performance anxiety. While everyone stepped up and performed amazingly well during an obvious stressful situation, some were able to achieve levels that I cannot imagine myself being capable of.

My personal highlight of the day was judging the virtual fight choreography and creative karaoke forms divisions. I know Silent River Kung Fu is the first martial arts school in history to ever have a student compete in a forms competition while singing “I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener” while another performed while singing a rendition of  “Danger Zone” that featured what appeared to be a Stratocaster-equipped guitar solo. Yes, this really happened. You can’t make this stuff up.

“We have a normal. As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.” - Robin S. Sharma (b. 1964)