I enjoy a good riddle, but even moreso, one that comes with a life lesson.
What is: A prison you feel safe in, yet never quite happy. Whenever you try to leave, it only grows bigger.
Answer: Your comfort zone
You know you are in your comfort zone when you feel safe, and well, comfortable. It’s not a bad place to be most of the time. But if we stay in our comfort zone all of the time most of us end up feeling stagnant and eventually this leads to dissatisfaction and potential unhappiness. A comfort zone isn’t as comfortable long term as it may lead you to believe.
In order to improve at anything we have to be willing to try new things, throw ourselves into uncomfortable situations and learn to cope with them over time. As we become comfortable with different situations and become proficient in a variety of additional skills, that comfort zone will keep expanding.
And that’s a good thing.
Getting out of your comfort zone is hard for sure, since we humans are wired towards a negativity bias. Our brain wants to keep us safe so it has a stronger reaction to real or anticipated negative events over potentially positive outcomes. But I encourage you to look past your biases and try something new. Get uncomfortable.
Whether it be to push outside of your comfort zone physically and try a new activity or lift a heavier weight, if you do it safely, you will be stronger next time. Or if you push outside of your comfort zone mentally and do something brave or mentally hard you will be mentally stronger and more resilient next time.
Your future happier, healthier more engaged self will thank you.
Check out this article by Dave Asprey if you are still wondering why it is a good thing to break out of your comfort zone!
