Last night I couldn’t sleep. I had things running through my brain; “how am I going to do this…how am I going to finish that….how am I going to start that? I lay there till 3am. When I woke up and was in the shower, I realised that what I have been doing over the last few days was way out of my comfort zone and I was having difficulties adjusting to it. Like me, a lot of people have major problems getting out of this zone, and to be honest, it must hold so many people back from ever achieving their goals . Comfort zones provide us with that warm feeling because we know that we will always have a place filled with things that are familiar to us. When the unexpected happens, we sometimes don’t know how to react, especially if it is something we do not want. The greatest growth comes from pushing through the present comfort zone in our life. But this process starts at birth. A baby feels safe, warm and secure in its mother’s womb. However, to stay there much longer than the pregnancy period would mean certain death for both the mother and child. Each milestone of growth and accomplishment for us as a young child involves leaving an existing comfort zone. The first crawl, the first step, many new, first experiences all push from the familiar into the unknown. For the child the process of pushing through their area of comfort leads to increasing independence and the formation of their unique personality. Personal growth occurs when a person moves out of their area of comfort and into the unknown and challenge of a fresh experience. There a lot of risk and discomfort associated with this and as we become more comfortable with our present life it gets easier to hold back and resist. But what holds us back? Like I said, when we were growing up, we were taught to always take the safe route for the sake of our health and sanity. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t operate that way. In fact, the real world is tough. Developing the habit of making ourselves adapt to whatever environment we’re placed in is one of the most important things that we can do to ensure our continuous development. In fact, we should be able to fit in and adapt wherever we are. We should be comfortable with change and resilient to discovery of new things. Whenever we consider taking on a new project, or venture, or want to put ourselves out there, we feel fear. Fear is natural, and is to be expected. Fear can warn you and enable you to be more aware and cautious, but it shouldn’t stop you progressing and moving on. If you want to move forward on the journey towards where you want to be, you will have to confront the fears of failure and the new. Unfortunately you see that many people allow fear to stop them, and don’t achieve their goals and aspirations and I can definitely relate to this and everyone can. J.F Kennedy said “People who want to be successful feel the fear but do it anyway”. Again this seems to be easier for some but not for others. But in essence leaving that comfort zone is the only way we ever move forward with our lives. It also I believe comes down to attitude as well to accept whats going on around you but in any matter I do believe that it is hard. (Well it still is for me). But I have an open and accepting mind so anything could be possible. Prominence and success exist outside the comfort zones.Those who achieve do so because they put themselves on the line and were willing to take risks. They do things that most won’t necessarily dare to do.. If we want more out of life, we need to bring out our adventurous side. Comfort zones don’t mean anything for risk takers because they know that reaching their goal trumps fear. Let us not live our lives in a box. Life always bestows its share of surprises, and rather than running away from them, which is nearly impossible to do, let us embrace our experiences and learn to see the bright side in these fateful shockers. mutabazidouglas@yahoo.co.uk
