“A comfort zone is a beautiful place – but nothing ever grows there.” - Annonymous.

The reason I started this blog with this sarcastic quote on Comfort Zone is because I am hugely compelled by its honesty and convincing power. This is far more accurate than we imagine; nothing, yes, nothing grows in the Comfort Zone. 

IMAGE CREDIT: COPILOT SOFTWARE OF MICROSOFT

How Much Does Comfort Zone Cost and Is It Worth For?

So, do you think your Comfort zone is holding you back and turning you helpless in unleashing beyond? Did this ever cross your mind that subconsciously though, you might be resisting the change since it made you uncomfortable now and then? And that's why you keep thinking about what is the likelihood of entering the Growth zone without practicing even the slightest discomfort! Is this even possible?

Not at all!

Therefore the final, burning question is "Why do some embrace superlative success while some still crawl into mediocrity?" The answer is obvious, they stepped out of their Comfort zones and learned how to be uncomfortable! 

So, now if you feel that you are connected enough with these inquiries, then I guess this Blog will offer you everything you must know about Comfort Zone. 

# My Comfort zone

Of course, we all have our fears, I too had and still have! I admit that I was too comfortable until 2017, thinking everything was in my control and I was happy, but I started to realize that I was not! My job had made me so comfortable, in fact, had made me helpless in unleashing beyond, and so I attempted to write. And you won't believe but I have completed one entire novel in the meantime (yet to publish, however), started with a blog, and then turned it into a website, and now thinking of writing a Gujarati storybook as well.

In the process, I had to believe in myself, spend some money, reject the thoughts of failure, embrace consistency, manage time, accept criticism, prepare myself for publishing (Still doing), manage finances, and much more. 

Currently, my website is ranking in Google, I am trying to get approval from Adsense, also getting the love of readers and lots of encouragement, and concurrently gathering my strength to publish my first novel in the future.

However, I was happiest on the day(s) when had I written my last chapter and started an educational website. This was pure joy.    

Nothing of this short had I succeeded if I hadn't stepped out of my comfort zone. Surely, I feared, panicked, then learned, but finally entered the growth zone. Small or big, but for me this is a success. And if someone asks me, then, in my opinion, even surviving is a success too!

This was a classical example of a midlife crisis for me, and I ended up being in a Comfort zone for some time. And if had I kept it entertaining, I would have certainly fallen into a downward spiral. But, I stepped out! 

Remember, Life begins at the end of the Comfort Zone- Neale Donald Walsch   

Alright, Let's learn together everything we could about Comfort Zone. 

ZONE(s) OF SUCCESS

Engrave this in your curious mind that success is the prize that is achieved only in the Growth zone. But before this comes the zone(s) of learning, panicking, fearfullness, and comfort, which needs to be secured just to set foot in the Growth zone, let alone the field of success.  

# DEFNITION

This terminology was coined for the first time by Judith M. Bardwick in 1991 in her book Danger in the Comfort Zone, stating, "The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk."

John Augustus Shedd has so correctly defined this in a single phrase, "“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.”

"Comfort Zone is your safe house where everything is under your control, and only you decide how much psychosocioeconomically, physically, and behaviorally you want to endure to thrive in constantly changing surroundings so that none of your existential elements are endangered"- PhraseItUp

If quoted scientifically, the Comfort zone is a desired state of Homeostasis, in a cell alike!

# THE BEHAVIOR

Here, you have prefixed mental limitations beyond which you restrain yourself from thinking, attempting, performing, and lastly, thriving. Whenever an opportunity hits, you choose the easiest, the closest, the effortless, and most importantly the painless way to accomplish the same; sometimes, you even let it go just to become more comfortable! 

All your actions here, show flat output, come with forjudged outcomes, and profoundly lack the potential to bring about a minor change. So over time, you are stuck into a loop of inaction which steadily shrinks your circle of success.   

You have a tendency to repeat your actions, hence every time you widen your area of the comfort zone, and finally toss yourself into a downward spiral that drags you away from any noteworthy achievement. 

You keep gathering fear, doubts, insecurity, and ideas of assertive failures, and so you become extra-defensive in venturing into something of even trivial magnitude.

You layer more fat, demineralize your bones, and mostly avoid any demanding physical strains, only because it is uncomfortable. 

You often choose to hold down your social exhibition, become less expressive, and due to fear of rejection and ridicule you put communicating with new people in the last only to prove your attendance and not your worthiness.

Even though it is of paramount importance, you evade stress arising from them, as in studying, researching, practicing, competing, or simply surviving. 

However, success is often measured (Wrongfully though) in terms of monetary possessions, which doesn't practically manifest without risking your assets, venturing into something new, or gambling them into the financial market, and this is a step ahead out of your Comfort zone. But the most glittering fear for a person in a Comfort zone is nothing else but losing money. This insecurity doesn't allow him to step out, and he becomes the victim of a middle-class mentality! 

As your behavior sets in, you choose not to take responsibilities, you escape such opportunities, you often deny the facts and feel happy being in an imaginary world that pleasures you, you choose boredom over an action, you choose to lie with yourself just to water your EGO, in fact, you sometimes endanger your relationships only to justify your actions. 

And most importantly, you resist the change!

In a nutshell, this is an extremely morish, super-besetting, and self-damaging HABIT  that either originates genetically or comes as a reward to one's environment.

If we try to fit this into James Clear's Habit model, then the cue for this habit is anything new that is enough to make a person uncomfortable, craving is searching for the easiest, effortless, closest, and painless way to attempt this, the response is the forjudged outcome that was already in the mind of a person, and finally, the reward is feeling the control one wants to perpetuate.

# What Comfort zone offers you?

A false sense of control, pleasure, and success, inaction, boredom, ill-health, mental blockage, seclusion, mediocrity, worthlessness, lack of self-worth, dwindling opportunities, and an existential crisis.

# What Comfort zone steals from you?

A pure sense of joy, confidence, poise, identity, recognition, risk-taking behavior, bravery and boldness, vision, IKIGAI, and undeniably, the road to success.

# The man who eradicated Comfort Zone from his life!

I just cannot proceed further without quoting David Goggins when I am talking about the Comfort zone. This man has literarily erased this word from his life. In his book "Can't Hurt Me", he has portrayed the importance of stepping out of Comfort Zone whenever an opportunity hits. 

At the age of 24, when he was stuck in the loop of this habit, he weighed 300 pounds, was depressed, his marriages were a failure, even he worked as a rat collector, and he was utterly in a state of mental fallout. 

But one day, while seated on a couch at his home he decided to step out, and he ran, for never to stop. He aspired to become a US Navy SEAL and shed 100 pounds in only 3 months. And now he is renowned as the world's toughest man alive. In all sense, he redefined the endurance!

His decision to cross the barrier pushed him to complete more than 70 endurance tests. He held the Guinness world record of completing 4030 pull-ups in 17 hours only. He authored 2 books and stole the fame of being a great motivational speaker. 

Goggin's life is a perfect metaphor to teach how much the Comfort Zone can cost you and how worthy it is!

# Some stories worth knowing 

JK Rowling, the famous author of the "Harry Potter" book series faced as many as 30 rejections but didn't let the comfort of "It is enough now" or "giving up" soothe her back.

Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur and the owner of world-famous companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and X crushed the comfort of financial security and led the world to groundbreaking innovations. In the process, he lost three space rockets and billions of dollars.

If Malala Yousafzai, after an assassination attempt on her by the Taliban, had discontinued attending school in Pakistan and had chosen the comfort of her own safety over her education, she would have never emerged as a global advocate for girl's education, and have never received the glory of becoming youngest Nobel Prize Laureate. 

Srikanth Bolla is one such founder whose life had started with extreme discomfort; he was born visually impaired. He had all the reasons and logic to stay in his comfort zone of being in the category of differently-abled people, but he stepped beyond and topped his class with 98% in 12th standard, became the first blind person to graduate from MIT, and later in life founded Bollant Industries.

Milkha Singh, aka "Flying Sikh" could have kept lamenting about the massacre of his family members during the partition of India and might have succumbed to the comfort of the victim mindset, instead, he chose to overcome the grief, used it as his strength and stepped out to run. 

Remember, these individuals didn’t achieve success by staying within their comfort zones. They dared to dream big, faced adversity and emerged stronger. 

So, friends, life is filled with many such awe-inspiring people and events where they have defied the temptation of Comfort Zone and led their lives to success. Let's not just read them but learn from them and lead a meaningful life.

Existential boredom is the pathognomic sign of being in a Comfort Zone - PhraseItUp

# Final Impression

I have been honest enough in dispensing the knowledge about what is a Comfort Zone and how disruptive it could prove if not crossed. 

So, are you ready to embrace the success now? Let us know in the comment what is that NEW that you are attempting? Or what Goals have you set? Are you still in a Comfort Zone or have stepped outside? 

Well, I know that you must be wondering why I just have discussed Comfort Zone and no other zones, nor have I outlined tips and methods to overcome the same, which is undisputedly desired here. Now, since this article has been a bit lengthy, I wish to cover it in the next blog. 

Kindly comment in the comment box on which parts you need more insights on. 

Lastly, I would like to end this article with one of my favorite quotes given by Yubin Zhang, a TEDx Speaker-

"Embrace the change, It's not as scary as it looks". 

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