Hey, hey! How is your Tuesday shaping up?
A quick thanks to everybody who’s completed my reader survey so far. If you haven’t filled it out yet, please do! It’s just 10 (quick) questions I hope will help me make this bloggity-blog better for you guys.
So, I wasn’t planning to post anything today, but in a moment of—let’s be honest, boredom—a thought came to me as I was reminiscing our weekend.
I briefly mentioned it here on Friday and on Instagram, but Saturday morning was Bazooka Man’s first haircut!!!
I purposely had zero expectations because I know my child. He is 99% his mother, which means he does not enjoy being messed with, freaks out on the regular, and isn’t afraid to let his unhappiness/annoyance be known.
He has an excuse (being a toddler) whereas I do not.
Anyway, I was fully prepared for lots of tears, which was right on target. He clung to me when I tried to place him in the super cool red VW van chair, so daddy held him the whole time while I took pictures.
Traci, the stylist, was incredibly nice and the actual haircut was quick and painless. He calmed down a little (thanks to being able to hold an extra comb we accidentally stole—sorry!), and on the whole, he did much better than I expected.
And, man oh man, does he look handsome! I miss his curls (that’s a euphemism for rockin’ mullet), but this is an important milestone that I’m glad we shared.
So, how does this relate to me?
Well, I’m a lot like a toddler when it comes to trying new things. While I like adventure (travel, trying new food, meeting new people, etc.), I’m sometimes afraid of the metaphorical electric sheers and VW van “big kid” chairs of the real world.
I love adventure in the abstract, but as I’ve mentioned before, I sometimes choose to let my hair grow over my eyes instead of trusting the experienced hands holding the sheers.
In the words of my mother, I don’t like ripples in my stream.
In my words, I very much enjoy my comfort zone.
But, I know that we never grow or improve if we refuse to take that first step. And sometimes our perceived comfort zones are more suffocating and restrictive than they are protective.
After putting it off forever, I’m finally making some changes—in two realms. It will be a while before I talk about the more personal one, but the other, I hope to share in the next several weeks!
I’m not making any huge life changes or anything, but regardless, I never take decisions—big or small—lightly. So, with that said—here’s to first haircuts and taking chances!
- In what way have you stepped outside of your comfort zone lately?
- On a less serious note, how often do you get your hair cut? I desperately need one—it’s been several months and my split ends are awful!
I get my hair cut once a year. Not so much because it doesn’t need it and I don’t get really close to getting it done, but because I am cheap and don’t want to have to find a new stylist (as I have to just about every time).
Oh and ways in which I am much like a toddler: I have no patience (I WANT IT NOW) and I can be rather impulsive and emotional about making decisions (I WANTED it THEN. But I want THIS NOW)
Yeah, I get the twice a year cut basically because I’m cheap, too! Plus I’ve had the same hairstyle (mostly) most of my life (minus a really awful rendition of Reese Witherspoon’s short, layered cut in “Sweet Home Alabama.” Never again! 😉
I get my hair cut once a year. I am a nightmare for a hair stylist, but my hair is always up in a ponytail, so I find spending the money to keep up with it not high on my priorities.
The last thing I did out of my comfort zone was go self hosted on my blog. It has been a big change and I don’t put myself out there. It’s also been really fun 🙂
Hair definitely isn’t high on my priorities either – I don’t understand how some people spend $100s on color and styling each month!
Love the self-hosted blog. It’s looking good!
Aw thank you for saying that! I am still figuring things out, but enjoying it just the same 🙂
Uhm, so I haven’t gotten my haircut in 5 years. I had a really bad experience and haven’t gone back. Oops. We finally gave Ryan his first haircut and to avoid the above mentioned dramatics I did it myself. It wasn;’t too bad! I highly recommend it – I put him in his highchair in front of the TV (I’m awesome.) with some cars and a smoothie and went to work. He actually cried when I took him OUT of the highchair, ha!
I don’t even like to cut my son’s nails so there’s no way I’d try his hair! That’s awesome it went so well for you, though. Distractions are the best!
Change can be so good. I actually crave it from time to time, when I feel myself getting restless. It’s hard to make the first step.
I probably cut my hair twice a year. Mostly because I’m cheap, haha!
Same here – I’m glad so many others are the same way! Sometimes I do crave change, too, but I guess there’s a certain kind of change I’m more accepting of.
Poor baby! I am glad the end result was good though! I know some kids come out with awful haircuts the first time!
I think I know some of the changes you might be talking about 😉 excited! I used to very much be able to relate to this and never wanted to change or rock the boat. Life has thrown so many changes at me lately though that I’ve just had to go with it. I’ve realized my biggest piece of going with changes better is not caring what other people think. So much easier said than done but it’s a game changer for sure.
Oh and I get my hair cut like twice a year!
Yay!
Yes, you have had your fair share of changes lately, but at least many of them are really exciting (still stressful, though, I know). I need to work on not caring what others think. In some areas I’ve gotten better, but in others I could improve greatly.
I used to be horrible at stepping outside my comfort zone but then I guess something must have changed as I always seem to be trying new things and taking risks – and I don’t even know what that change was? Maybe more self confidence?
As for my hair cut… um… I pretty much avoid them as much as possible as they always cut more than I want and then my hair rebels and turns into a frizzy crazy beast!
I understand the frizz! Humidity is my worst enemy (& we have lots of it).
Self confidence is a big thing I struggle with. Not sure why – because I do objectively know my strengths – but it’s a big reason why I’m so scared of a change or risks, too. Glad you’ve seen improvement and learned to step outside your comfort zone!
I love that little saying your mum has. I totally feel like that at times. But since I’ve left home I’ve become so much more adventurous. Something out of my comfort zone I did recently was sign up for a volunteering position at a school nearby.
Yes, moving away from home definitely helps with becoming more adventurousness. I branched out a lot during college, too (seems I need to go back to that mindset!). Volunteering at a school sounds like awesome – what will you be doing?
I’m much better as I get older in stepping outside my comfort zone (sometimes I’m kind of forced to since we’ve moved so much in the past several years), but I definitely like my comfort zone, lol. I find having a kid makes me more brave too…like, my kid makes me go to new things and talk to people I wouldn’t normally strike up a conversation with.
I probably cut my hair 2-3x a year…I used to go more often but I can’t be bothered now lol.