Feel Uncomfortable? Do you wonder the reward for you?

I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is for someone to play Santa Claus.  Way to go Billy Bob Thronton!  You the man.

  
          This blog has been the main focus on a big class project.  I have enjoyed the writing and research so far, and I plan on keeping this blog going after I turn it in.  I have never done a blog before and I like the conversations that I’ve had with people who have talked about my blog with me.

            However, I am at that magical point where I have to turn in what I’ve done thus far.  I have confidence in the work that I have put forth in and I will follow the directions to every t crossed and i dotted after this post is done.  With that I feel a little uncomfortable, along with probably a majority of Professor Wilson’s two digital advertising classes.  So was Billy Bob's character when he met this kid.  I am not a stranger to feeling uncomfortable because of everything I do in life and what I have put my body through.

            So the first part of this blog is about defining one’s comfort zone.  A comfort zone is where an individual doesn’t feel out of place, threatened, they’re satisfied, relaxed, cozy, they are at peace with themselves and feel good about them.  Now the sports side and athletics’ side of things.  A great coach will push their athletes out of their comfort zone in terms of conditioning, mental training, physical shape, and in other disciplines of their sport.

            I have comfort zones when I workout, we all do.  Over the last four years the one thing that my head coach, Doug Schwab, has done to get me out of my wrestling comfort zone the most, is his warm ups for practice.  I would estimate I’ve lost anywhere between three to four pounds every time he runs a warm up.  Usually after 25 to 30 minutes of doing various exercises to break a sweat I am no doubt a few pounds lighter and completely out of breath.  Then we go some more so we are “fully warmed up.”

            In my end of the season meeting last year I told Doug I straight up hate, with a passion, his warm ups and how long they last.  I usually feel drained before the part of practice where my mind and body are tested and sharpened by another man.  Wrestling has no doubt pushed me to the breaking point and forced me to get back on my feet, get back to practice and perform.  The one wrestler hands down who has gotten me frustrated, upset, ticked off, and given me feelings that I want to beat the crap out of him is David Bonin from Louisiana.

David Bonin and I after last season's wrestling banquet.

            The positive of having a rivalry of this nature is the relationship I’ve made with David, he is basically my brother now through wrestling.  The bonds I’ve created with my teammates are tough to put into words other than family.  There are great rewards from placing oneself out of their comfort zone.  Going through a college wrestling season with a team is unlike any other sport in terms of all we sacrifice, but we do it tighter, we are never alone.

            A couple of posts ago I stated my opinion on losing ten pounds in ten days ads.  In that ad I recommended working out with someone else.  There is accountability, and the desire to push one another to get the most out of a workout.  I have to thank Will Jackson here for going through wrestling lifts with me this summer, without him it would have been very easy for me to skip a lift on a day I didn’t feel like working out.  I got better and stronger because of him, and I know he got some benefits and rewards from lifting with me.

            The next comfort zone that I had to recently conquer in college was talking to women.  This is a total change in thinking from where this blog post started, however, like I said before getting out of my comfort zone has given me some great rewards and great memories.  Again my team came through for me in all those awkward situations while in college.  Here I have to share what happened when I was beginning to talk to my current girlfriend, Brittany Nelson.  I had known Brittany for a few months and I was waiting to tell my team about her.  We had only been talking seriously for about two to three weeks.

            However, in life I have realized that women talk, and they talk way more than men do.  One of her teammates had a class with a teammate of mine and Brittany had mentioned my name.  My teammates didn’t know Brittany and I were talking, and would be dating soon.  So her teammate, Molly Turk, went to the wrestler that she knew and asked him for the low down on me.  The wrestler she talked to was Joey Lazor, right before an after season workout, my roommate in the dorms at the time, and the one wrestler who just had to share what he just heard.

Always a crowd favorite, rocks a killer mullet, has a wardrobe second to none, and a great man, Joey Lazor.

            He quickly walked into the wrestling room and used a volume to be sure everyone heard the question he was about to ask me.  He said something along the lines of “Banach (or Bandog, my nickname) who is volleyball chick Brittany you’re talking too?”  Instantly I was put on the spot, but it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be.  From what I gathered the majority of the team was happy for me.  To this day I still think of the odds that of all wrestlers Molly could have asked about me, Joey was the one.

My Mom's creeper picture skills at their best.

            In every college situation I was always put in some uncomfortable position.  The feelings I had when I started this post are slowly going away, I’m not so nervous about this project as I was before.  My work is what it is and there is nothing to change that now.  I have to thank each and every one of my college teammates throughout the years.  I have met around 75 people and created memories with them.  All good.  I had to force my self to do things that I was never ok with doing on my own, my team backed me up there, and still will in the year to come.

            This blog has been a fun ride and will no doubt continue on past this post.  What I’ve done so far now needs to be graded.  As for this post, to anyone reading it, find something that drives you out of your comfort zone, the rewards that take time will come and you will never regret it.  Ask me about this topic sometime.  Wrestling and girls are just two I shared here; I don’t plan on starting a whole other blog about comfort zones and how to push through them.  Maybe I will revisit this topic in the future.  There is nothing I cannot overcome because of the trials wrestling has put me through, I climbed a mountain (the cog trail in Colorado Springs) before the start of my fourth year of college, and I plan on doing it again.  The view was the smaller reward.  The bigger one was doing it with my wrestling family.  Until next time, laugh often, with everyone, but never at someone.

Riley Banach

Brittany has a love/hate relationship when we Jet Ski.  I love it, I don't see any problems.

The Panther Train at the top of the Cog in August 2012.  Love these guys.