In my not so past "past life", I used the word "comfort zone" liberally when I could not justify the reasons for my actions or in-actions. What exactly is a comfort zone? I thought. And how did I break it after 5-6 years?
I would put down my thoughts and let others ponder and comment on them.
I feel comfort zone is fear of unknown. "Unknown", not "New" is the key. We all like new. We all like changes. But only when we feel we have some control over them. Once we feel that will not the case, we use the word and say that we are in the comfort zone, while also hating it.
Now 2 lines on how I broke it. First, I decided on threshold when I will do a change and will be able to justify it. For you, it can be an event at work or home; just take a pick. Next was to try to minimize or control that change, which can be a fall back scenario. Once I had these 2 figured out, it was the matter of waiting for the thresh hold event to occur. Now just be sure to keep the threshold realistic enough or you may never attain it :). Life goes on for others, but remember that it will go on for you too and we all adjust.
You may have already known all this,but I wanted to put my 5 week "out of comfort zone" experience in front of you all. In fact, once I was out, I realized there no zone per say. It was just my fear that quickly disappeared. Please share your thoughts and comments.....
I would put down my thoughts and let others ponder and comment on them.
I feel comfort zone is fear of unknown. "Unknown", not "New" is the key. We all like new. We all like changes. But only when we feel we have some control over them. Once we feel that will not the case, we use the word and say that we are in the comfort zone, while also hating it.
Now 2 lines on how I broke it. First, I decided on threshold when I will do a change and will be able to justify it. For you, it can be an event at work or home; just take a pick. Next was to try to minimize or control that change, which can be a fall back scenario. Once I had these 2 figured out, it was the matter of waiting for the thresh hold event to occur. Now just be sure to keep the threshold realistic enough or you may never attain it :). Life goes on for others, but remember that it will go on for you too and we all adjust.
You may have already known all this,but I wanted to put my 5 week "out of comfort zone" experience in front of you all. In fact, once I was out, I realized there no zone per say. It was just my fear that quickly disappeared. Please share your thoughts and comments.....
I would say that mostly comfort zone makes you weak, less competitive, not confident of taking risks and taking on new challenges. But there can be different scenario as well e.g.; if one is happy and really enjoying the current state then I don’t see any reason to move out of the comfort zone. But if there is even an iota of restlessness then one should definitely break the shackles. Once you move out only then you will realize that how much opportunity cost you lost by just being in the comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest way to move out of the comfort zone is to think back on how you achieved your current comfort zone. How it got started and what are the factors that make you think that you are in a comfort zone. Write those down on one sheet of paper. Now analyze all those points. Determine what will happen if you move out of your comfort zone and write down pros and cons against all those factors. Once you have done this exercise then try to think freely and jolt down all the things that you think you can achieve by moving out of comfort zone on another sheet of paper. Now it’s just a simple matter of striking down points between two sheets.
You have a winner in your hand…
But other than that I think sometimes it makes sense to move out of the comfort zone just to see where you stand. Whether you still have that zeal and passion to swim in difficult waters with strangers. In the whole process you get to learn a lot about yourself as well as others and most importantly you tend to meet new people with new thoughts and ideas. There are chances that your decision may not be easy to start with and you have to compromise a lot including your families but try to see life from a long-term vision instead of short term gains.
I know there are people who always try to shoot by putting a gun on others shoulders but believe me folk’s people understand on what you are up to. You think you are making a fool of others but in reality you are just fooling yourself.
Come on free yourself and do what is best for you and your family… May be the time has come to get back your life and take some difficult but not hard decisions.