We have all heard of the comfort zone. We all have a comfort zone, but it looks completely different for each of us. What is comfortable for one person is very uncomfortable for another. Each of us has a unique comfort zone.
What is common between us all is that the comfort zone boundaries are not set in stone. We don’t have a zone that we are born with that simply remains the same throughout our life. Some may argue that certain people were born with a larger zone, but that doesn’t really matter. The important thing to know is that the boundaries are always moving.
Maybe it helps to picture a battle. Countries for centuries have protected their boundaries and fought to expand them outwards. What would happen to countries if they just retreated everyone to the center and left their boundaries unoccupied? Eventually, their boundaries would shrink inward.
This is how I think of the comfort zones in our life. We have areas that we are very comfortable. We have to pay attention that we don’t retreat all the way the way to the center. We can go for a visit. We can retreat to the very center of our comfort zone on the couch with a bag of chips, but we best not stay their too long. We need to return to our boundaries. The areas that border the comfortable and the uncomfortable. Beyond it is the world of the unknown. The world we can only discover with our future potential. It may seem too scary because we don’t know what monsters are out there, but that is why we need to stay on the boundaries, but then take one extra step.
Once we have defeated those monsters (or discovered there are none) and secured our boundaries, we can take another step. Expanding our comfort zones is always a little uncomfortable, but it beats retreating and giving up our boundaries to the invisible enemies.
Are you protecting and expanding your boundaries or have you retreated to the center?
Rich Florence 