It’s been quite a while since we’ve last wrote for this blog. We apologize. We won’t make an excuse. Because excuses stink.
Everyone wants to be comfortable. It’s a basic human desire. We fight to attain comfort. We certainly prefer comfort over discomfort. Tempurpedic vs a bed of nails. 74 degrees in air conditioning or 95 with 80% humidity outdoors. You get the point. We want to stay inside that thing called a comfort zone. Anything that feels uncomfortable falls outside the comfort zone. So why can a comfort zone be dangerous?
It’s a trap. Like the ones Indiana Jones is always attempting to avoid. A comfort zone can become a trap when being comfortable stops you from wanting to try new things, change things or embrace things. “I’m comfortable where I am but thank you for offering the opportunity.” Then that opportunity becomes something that you truly missed out on. A business idea comes along that could create new revenue but you’re comfortable with business as usual. An potential investment arises and it’s a sure thing but you can’t bring yourself to pull the trigger and invest. Watch the trap become worse and worse as time goes on. The more you dwell in that quick sand comfort zone, the more you sink deeper into it.
It’s progress inhibiting. Great progress cannot be made inside your comfort zone. Progress is never going to feel all warm and gooey inside. It’s always going to be difficult and at times turbulent. Especially significant progress. Now maybe there are rare types of progress that can be made comfortably. But I would go as far to say it is extremely rare. You cannot make something significantly better comfortably. If you are trying to improve your business, it’s not going to feel nice. We know. We are in the middle of a gigantic business overhaul as we speak. If you are trying to improve yourself, there will be unknowns. There will be things that cross your path that won’t feel nice. The willingness to dwell outside of your comfort zone is critical to making significant progress no matter what that progress has to do with.
It prevents extreme success. I read the stories of many of the world most successful people. Not necessarily just the super rich but people that made a real difference in the world. None of them got to where they are by staying inside their comfort zones. Their roads were treacherous. They surpassed many uncertainties and took many risks to get to the point of extreme success. Steve Jobs didn’t create world changing products inside his comfort zone. He failed countless times. He was even fired from Apple.
So abandon that comfort zone. Find out what great things may come in your future. Find out how great you can become. Take calculated risks. Embrace uncertainty. Soon you might determine how it becomes more and more tolerable to breach the walls of your comfort zone and even better things will begin to happen. Until next time.
