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January 10, 2025
Comfort feels like a warm blanket of certainty: safe, cosy, and familiar. You yearn for it, finding it in your job, relationships, and everyday routine. Why would you ever want to stray from this paradise of safety and leave your comfort zone? But what if this comfort, slowly and quietly smothers your adaptability and leaves you vulnerable to life's inevitable changes?
Imagine putting on blinders that restrict your perspective, convincing yourself that what you can see is all there is to life. You become familiar with your routine, job, and surroundings, finding comfort in the notion that you understand the world and your place in it. Like many of us, you mistake familiarity for control. It leaves you with a false sense of security. You cling to the familiar, obsessed with comfort, and unwilling to explore beyond it. Unwilling to risk the feeling of safety by straying into a world of uncertainty. Unwilling to leave your comfort zone.
No matter how much control we think we have, life is full of uncertainty. With all this variance, it is inevitable that our view of the world will become incomplete or outdated. What was true yesterday could be false today and that's okay. The issue comes when we resist change, holding on relentlessly to what you "know" and believe. (Pluto is a planet!) By resisting change, we put ourselves at risk of falling out of touch and being left behind.
Resistance can be seen in many areas of life, from work to friendships. An unwillingness to upskill in the workplace can leave your skills obsolete. Maintaining friendships that no longer align with your values can leave you shackled to a version of yourself that you have outgrown. Holding onto someone who is no longer a part of your life can leave you depressed and tightly grasping the past. That yearning for comfort in what was familiar slowly smothers your ability to grow into more than what you are today.
It can be necessary to find solace in our comfort zone during difficult periods of life. But when we overstay our time here, we unknowingly lead ourselves into greater discomfort in the long-term. So where can we find sustainable, long-term comfort?
Long-term comfort can be found by leaving your comfort zone. Venturing into the unfamiliar and embracing uncertainty helps develop the resilience to adapt to an ever changing world. Accepting that your view is incomplete and is forever evolving. Comfort is found in your ability to continuously reinterpret the world as it changes and adjust your place within it.
A good place to start is by opening ourselves up to new experiences and entertaining alternative ideas and beliefs. This can help us to challenge the existing assumptions and beliefs that we cling to and let define us. Speaking in front of others, for instance, can challenge the belief, "I am shy and I cannot speak in front of a crowd". Trying a new approach to a task could dismantle the notion that "It's just the way we do things".
These tasks may sound simple in theory. But in practice doing new things or accepting that we may be wrong is uncomfortable. Often it means we have to reinterpret who we are and how we see the world around us. That is what makes the idea of change so overwhelming and why we can actively avoid it.
Over time, small steps of discomfort reshape how you see yourself and your place in the world. Saying yes to a walk may turn you into someone who likes hiking. Raising a question in that meeting may turn you into a leader who advocates for change. These small intentional actions, help you recognise your identity is extremely malleable. Like water in a glass, you can reshape yourself to suit any environment.
True comfort isn't clinging to familiar routines, beliefs, or identities, it comes from knowing that no matter what life throws at you, you can adapt and thrive. Comfort comes from our ability to evolve, not our ability to stay the same.
You can start today by taking a small step out of your comfort zone or maybe something a little more drastic, I've listed some ideas below.