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Aloha!

My first job was with an organization which had a strong training department. Training was one of the interventions that we helped other organizations with. Needless to say, we were the first to be trained to be effective with and for the other organizations.

It was quite a good experience, and when I look back to that time, I did pick up most of the habits that I now have. However, much like somethings that ring true immediately when we hear it for the first time, there are those that don’t. While I picked up all the good things that my first job had to offer, I could never understand a few concepts. One of them was the comfort zone. 

What is so confusing about the comfort zone you ask? 

Nothing now. But back then it was confusing. 

Why? 

Let me explain. 

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Comfort Zone – What is it? 

The concept of comfort zone amazed me at the beginning. Could be because of my understanding. What is a comfort zone? 

Well, a basic explanation is that humans are tuned to find the “status-quo”  and therefore, live a life in the same manner continuously for as long as we live. This is not very difficult to see. Try to answer these questions and I will explain why:

1. How many millionaires are there in the world? 
2. How many billionaires are there in the world? 
3. How many people do you know who stood for a cause? 
4. How many leaders are there whose work you admire? 

Did you find the answers? Now, the world population is 7.5 billion and rising while your answers even under your wildest guess would have been a few million. Am I right? If so, why is there such a small population which seems to get it all? 

The answer is not because they are blessed more OR born in the right family OR they are in the right place at the right time. The answer is that they figured out how to be out of their comfort zones more often than not. Conversely, most of the population of the world prefers to be where it is. In other words, humans tend not to rock the boat. 

This aspect of doing what we had been doing, knowing what we had known and not striving to do or know more is called being in the comfort zone. You would have guessed by now, that this is the most comfortable place to be.  

Now, few would wonder that my questions were material and hardly touching other aspects of human lives. Not true. Consider the following questions:

1. How many spiritual leaders do you know who made a difference in people’s lives? 
2. How many people do you know who care for the environment? 
3. How many people do you know who care for animals? 

If you can answer that, you would realize that it is still a small percentage as compared to the world population. And mind you, when I say world population, I refer to people like you and me.

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Comfort Zone – As I understood

 

The idea of coming out of the comfort zone enamored me a lot. It meant to be more than I am, to be bigger than I am, to do things more than I am doing right now, to become more than I am right now and many more allied thoughts. Trust me, this is a very liberating and inspiring thought. I loved it, and all the while tried to come out of the so-called comfort zone. 

It went well until I started feeling going ahead a bit difficult. I am a person who introspects a lot, and so I did. I realized that while all the above feelings that I mentioned were true, there were few other feelings too.  

What were they?

Well, these were the not so great thoughts yet seemed to be associated with comfort zone understanding. The ones I am talking about were the feelings of struggle, to go against the tide, to put ourselves in momentary (I call it momentary, and I will explain why) discomfort and so on. So, coming out of the comfort zone meant I would be bigger, but I would have to go through hardships to get there. Which means, automatically I was on the lookout for hardships. 

Now, here is the problem. If I did get out of my comfort zone and achieved things easily, I did not feel a sense of satisfaction. Why? Because there was no hardship. I felt lesser and even went to the extent of feeling guilty about getting things easy.

So, out of the comfort zone meant hardships to follow momentarily (get it now?) before I get what I want. After all, the opposite of comfort is discomfort, isn’t it? 

So, what is the problem? 

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Comfort Zone – Issues

The problem with comfort zone was that I did not like the hardships. I did not want to go through the momentary discomfort. And I definitely, did not like looking forward to the discomfort without which I felt unfulfilled.  

Then I came across the Bible verse mentioned above. The gist of the message is to avoid struggle and relax so that goodness can flow to me easily. Now, if goodness can flow to me easily, then it means I am in my comfort zone. And if I am in my comfort zone, then I am stagnant. 

Can you sense my confusion? I want to be out of my comfort zone, but God (apparently) wants me to be in the comfort zone.

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Comfort Zone – Relooked 

Being someone who knows how to come out of confusion (many times thanks to inspirations from God Himself), I realized that the only thing that I need to do is to relieve my self from the definition of the comfort zone, as I knew it. 

It was that easy. 

So, if I were to look at comfort zone as a leap from one level to another, holding my self in love and appreciation while I move between the levels, then it suddenly became a positive experience. The moving between levels does not need me to expect hardships nor does it expect me to be laced with guilt. It agrees with the Bible verse too. In other words, moving out of our comfort zone can be and should be a happy experience. 

Think about it, to be bigger than you are, to be more than you are and all the other happy feelings can be associated with happy feelings while transitioning from one level to another too. Why does it have to be hardships and unhappy thoughts while transitioning? It is not necessary. 

Now that you see comfort zone in a new light, how do you feel getting out of it and living life FULL and HAPPY? 

I guess you will like it. So, let inspiration drive you out of your comfort zone and let it keep your momentum to reach the next level.  

All the best!!

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Image Courtesy: mohamed_hassan @ Pixabay