You Cannot Risk Staying Too Long in Your Comfort Zone

Why you should say goodbye quickly.

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears — Les Brown

This popular quote by Les Brown and many other motivational quotes like these have pushed people like me out of our comfort zones with great success.

But, more often than not, when we see people who have regarded these words closely, we only see the results not the process.

Roy T Benneth defined the comfort zone as ‘a psychological state or position in which one feels totally familiar, safe, at ease and secure’. In this zone, you are not pressured, anxious, or stressed about anything. On the surface, it appears to be an excellent position to be in.

But it comes with a huge deal.

As we grow older and travel through life, we acquire different habits, customs, routines and behaviors. We also unconsciously adopt and settle into a way of life that is very convenient, manageable, and acceptable to us and even those around us.

However, the majority of us yearn for more. We want to be so financially free, get a better job, a bigger circle, an expensive and well decorated car, a sufficient vacation time and much more. We are constantly aware that we could be better than we are, but somehow, we choose to ignore it.

We believe that where we are ‘presently' is where we are supposed to be and that everyone who tells us we can do better and achieve more extraordinary results is just a hungry motivational speaker trying to sell us his weak ideas.

We all want to live in our respective comfort zones but let me break the sad news to you; The ‘supposed' comfort zone is actually the lowest and the most uncomfortable place to reside in. It is in fact the zone of utmost discomfort.

As previously stated, your unwillingness to step outside of your comfort zone stifles your potential for advancement and growth. As we all know, life changes constantly and if you don’t change with it, you would slack. Because when progress is impeded, your life situation and status will either remain constant or deteriorate.