It is ironical so much so that finding an answer to who came first seems easy. Throughout our lives we run after comfort and the experts say Leave Your Comfort Zone. Why? Where do you want to exactly go after leaving it? What exactly do you want after leaving it? Don’t we work so that we create comfort around us?
Well answers to these questions are never straight and practical. The commercial world around us wants us to continuously upgrade and spend more than what we earn. The order forms a cycle when comfort is replaced by the NEED for LUXURY. Living with our kids, parents and friends comfortably is all that the human wants. We have confidence in doing everything that we do in our zone. We know how to do it day in day out. Leaving that zone means we do something new, leaving everything behind. The new that we have never done, faced or conquered. Often, we fail, and people call it experience. Why? Was there a need to do it when you already specialized in something? Its an ask by society. An unset rule to pull you out and make you play the game of comparison, success and failure. The default you are termed is failure if you don’t play it and in case you are able to buy that bigger house or car you are success. The question is, did I really need that Car? I already had one. smooth, powerful and one which could accommodate all my family for a drive.
Comfort zone is where you know your things well and have all that “you” wanted. An urge to leave it is because people or society around you are asking you to prove you are happy because “they” are not happy with you being happy. Happiness is where the comfort is. Why do you want to disturb what you have earned? They say you don’t grow till the time you don’t leave your comfort zone. Okey. I leave my comfort zone and then Grow. What does that give me? Comfort? I already had that. Funny. Just because someone said that you should leave, you left your home. Now this is ironic. Understand that TIME Is Unconquerable, and riches are not same forever. Nothing is remembered. Its just the words that may speak and that will make no difference to us after we run the life cycle. Whatever is your norm, whatever your life is right now, whatever you’re not even thinking about changing — that’s your comfort zone”. Some people call it a rut. It’s not a rut; it’s life. It’s the things that are regular, that are predictable, that cause no mental or emotional strain and stress. Leaving comfort zone relentlessly, as the leadership experts advise, will lead you straight into burnout.
What next? Why not expand your comfort farther. To the Zone of Proximal development. This is nothing but the space adjoining your comfort zone. It means taking on challenges deliberately after having thought long and hard. Playing to your strengths and laying each step. Let not jump boarding comfort zone kill your wellbeing. Let not comparison come in our life. Lets grow gradually and comfortably by expanding our zones and conquering Zone of Proximal Development one at a time.
Remember, life is not only about competition where audience enjoys while you sweat it out.
This is a thought many live by and they live well. It is a choice we make.
As for you, do what makes you happy, not what others consider mediocre and less than the best. They wouldn’t notice the difference.
I write, I am satisfied and I don’t step outside my comfort zone at all. I am so comfortable it would make you jealous. But yes I keep changing dynamics of My Zone to keep learning and experiencing newness.
