The Baack Paack

Yep.. I said it.
If you do a search for the phrase comfort zone, you will see hundreds of motivational images that say, “The comfort zone is beautiful, but nothing grows there.”  While I respect the notion of nothing growing in the comfort zone, I find the comfort zone anything but beautiful.   The comfort zone is that place that many retreat to as a safe harbor, a place of shelter, a place where one can rationalize and accept the situation that they are currently in.  Whether it be from a stressful situation at work, or a workout at the box that had you trying new moves, to pushing your distance and speed on your workout.  The comfort zone becomes the fall back, the safe, the non pressure, the ‘lack-of-accountability’ location in your head that has forgiven you for your mistakes in the past and allows rewards to be received for actions that shouldn’t be rewarded.

When we want to change, from either a new job, or a new skill, or a new location for our life – what do we have to do in order to get to that next level?

Stay the same?
Talk about making it happen?

No, we have to put ACTION to the words and hopes and dreams to make it happen.  We have to study books and write the paper to pass the class, we need to work hard at work for that promotion, or we need to dedicate the time and put WORK and effort into changing ourselves.  None of these things happen inside the comfort zone.  The comfort zone is the barrier from us reaching our goals and dreams.  The comfort zone is the 500′ tall glass wall to the north that “protects” us from all the things that could make us uncomfortable.  We can see through the comfort zone, in fact we do it daily.  We see through the wall in the form of dreams.  We can see what we want to become, what we want to achieve.  We can see what it will take in order to get there, from the tools we need, to the effort that it will require.  However, staying in our comfort zone keeps us from getting there. We stay were we are, looking at fleeting dreams and don’t progress.  Or we stay where we are and begin to believe that we will never be able to cross the threshold of the comfort zone barrier, becoming depressed and quite possibly emotionally eat ourselves down the path of self destruction.  Our own comfort zone, a self designed place, constructed to keep us safe, leads us to our own destruction.

I am not a fan of people staying in their comfort zone.  I am not even a fan of people recognizing that they have a comfort zone.  We as individuals have so much potential.  Our world, when we are hungry and passionate for change, become limitless.  Physical barriers, emotional barriers, financial barriers can all melt away, once we step OUT of the comfort zone.  I am just as guilty as anyone when looking at life from the leather couch in my comfort zone.  I watched life go by for several years, wishing away days, weeks and months, all the while not taking the steps needed to ‘scale that wall’ to get on the other side of my comfort zone.  When I finally put action to my dreams, they transformed to goals, which beget other goals, which in turn created new opportunities for me to take advantage of.

Think about it.   For everything you want in your life, what is the one constant, the one element that is the same with all of them?
The element of action.  You need to apply a force that will move your dreams to goals, and that force isn’t present in your comfort zone.  The comfort zone is devoid of action, in fact it is a place of inaction, because inaction is safe.  But can you get what you want and still reside in your comfort zone?  For 99% of the world, no.   Stepping outside of the comfort zone might as well be jumping into the middle of the ocean and expect to swim back to Boston.  It isn’t going to happen.  Most people see their first steps out of the comfort zone as drastic as that example.  That first step might as well be a death sentence, so why even try?

Another aspect to think about is that the longer you stay in your comfort zone, the smaller the zone becomes.  The world is a massive place, with more opportunities becoming available each and every day.   Places to see, activities to do, adventures to try, each and every day more opportunities exist.  The longer you stay in your comfort zone, the smaller your world becomes. As you fail to change with the changes of the world, the less you grow.

Nothing worth having is easy to obtain.  If you want something you have to work for it.  You have to apply energy, determination, effort.  These things will push you out of your comfort zone, and the more time you spend outside of your comfort zone the more time you spend learning, growing and accomplishing the things you only once dreamed about.

What are you doing this year to step outside your comfort zone?