Start Living - Get Out of the Comfort Zone
abracad, · Categories: self helpMany of us spend our lives looking for a comfortable niche where everything is hunky-dory, we don't have any worries, we're surviving and have a little more besides...
In short we look for our comfort zone, and if we find it we try really hard to stay there.
However, there are two main problems with the comfort zone.
Firstly, when we're in it we tend to become complacent, to imagine this state of relative contentment is our God-given right, and to stop trying too hard to move forwards.
Secondly, life constantly changes. Though things may be sweet today there will certainly come a time when they are less so. It could be tomorrow, it could be years away. But the things you draw comfort from today will not always be as they are.
A little study of the lives of our heroes past and present reveals that the things we most admire in them were not usually forged in the comfort zone, but under more testing circumstances. Reflection upon our own lives tells a similar story. We have learned and grown most when challenged. But what is life, if not to learn and grow?
The human Spirit is essentially lazy. If we could spend our days with our feet up we probably would. It takes effort of will to actually do things, and even then it is our nature to expend least effort. When everything is rosy we have little incentive to go the extra mile.
That's not to say we should opt for a life of constant hardship, rejecting all of life's luxuries. Of course we are all entitled to happiness, look upon it as compensation for the hardships of life. But we shouldn't also seek to stand still once we reach a place of comparative stability. To stand still is to die.
We should constantly push ourselves forward, seeking new challenges, new horizons. Sometimes we need to risk what we already have, we need to experience the associated feelings. We need to push ourselves further down the roads we're traveling, and we need to explore new roads that we, and maybe others, have never traveled before.
How do we do this?
- Pack up and move to a new town, state, country...
- Change job - not just employer, but occupation. Do something completely different.
- Re-furnish, re-arrange, re-decorate your home
- Watch, read, listen to something new - not just new, but of different genre, something you wouldn't have even considered before
- Learn something new - a language, skill, topic
- Change your style - get a new haircut, buy some new clothes, get your ears pierced
- Meet different people - join a club, sign up for a class... Choose people different from yourself.
- Take a chance - risk a significant some of money on a gamble
- Change your routine - we're creatures of habit 'coz habit means we don't have to think, but force yourself to break your habits
None of these are easy, but all will lift you out of your comfort zone and help you live a more purposeful and fulfilled life.
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Filed in: self help
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