Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone!

Posted: April 12, 2016

Do you feel that you are stuck in a rut, even if a comfortable one? Stepping out of your comfort zone might be the answer, for a more fulfilling life.

It is so difficult to stop doing our favorite thing in our favorite way. We sleep better in a particular pose, in a particular direction on a particular bed. We jog on a specific path with a specific playlist.

It is easy. It is simple. It requires no thought. It is on auto mode. But doesn’t this life on auto mode take away the charm of doing something we have never done before? Is this kind of life really living a fulfilled life?

Here are a few pointers to avoid ‘comfort zoning’ ourselves.

Take baby steps towards experiencing newness

We should not gobble up more than what we can chew. Don’t get into a change frenzy. Make baby changes. If you take a cab/car to go to the supermarket, how about walking today?

If you love a small helping of desert after lunch, how about having a fruit salad? Change the pace of your morning walk, read a newspaper standing up, compliment a colleague in office, hide your mobile phone for two hours.

Bury the micro planner in you

There are people who plan everything in advance to the last detail. Though it is good to be organised, it could become monotonous if some tasks are repeated with zero defect over and over again. Such people cannot shift gears suddenly and get very uncomfortable when instant decisions are to be made.

Add a little insecurity to your life by not being meticulous in all actions. When we try very hard to make things happen the way we have planned, we cannot experience the magic of chance, the magic of divine will.

Be ready to embrace the unexpected. Let yourself be spontaneous.

Take a short vacation tomorrow, chuck that prepared and printed speech for the meeting, buy a gift for no reason, visit your parents unannounced.

Don’t criticize the change

People do not like new products/innovative ideas because they require a paradigm shift to embrace the change. To resist, we criticize.

“I prefer a chauffeur and my car to any service like Ola or Uber,” “There is no feel of a book in Kindle”, “How can you buy clothes without trying them on?” – these are some such statements I used for pretty long.

Then I pushed myself to download one of the apps. It worked and worked real well.

I had to welcome the change.

I am a book proud woman. I devour the written word. The haughty book collector in me finally bought a Kindle a few days ago. I must admit that I am loving it. Who knows I might click on some website selling women’s wear in a few days and buy uncomfortably?

The leap from comfort to discomfort and back to comfort is what it is all about. The ‘Feeling Clingers’ that we are, is a bottleneck in our will to embrace change.

Let us convert the marathon comfort zone into a hurdle race. Let us punctuate our flowing life with small surprises. Don’t cling to the feeling of comfort. This clinging stagnates us and makes us stability seekers.

YOLO really means ‘Don’t comfort zone yourself.’ Welcome discomfort, welcome life.

Image source: stepping out of your comfort zone by Shutterstock.