Challenge Your Comfort Zones

Balance Between Comfort And Challenge

I have always been a person who lives life, in a routine type of way. I like to recognize what I’m doing, be able to predict what I’m doing, and live in a way where I feel familiar and comfortable with my day to day living.

For the most part, I have not been a person who enjoys surprises, and I can be the first to admit that I enjoy staying within a comfort zone. But even I’ve learned, that comfort zones alone, can be a life too rigid.

Comfort zones have a fine line. They aren’t necessarily the evilest of things. But at the same time, they can sometimes become a bit unhealthy when sinking deep into. When they are not very healthy outlets in our lives, they become a real problem. Because those comfort zones may keep our eyes or minds closed.

There are always positive, new opportunities out there in our lives. It’s important to go through our daily journey keeping our minds open to both the harmful as well as the healthy. The key to having both is to obtain the ability to draw a comparison. It’s that skill of comparing, that can greatly keep us from harm’s way. Its value as a skill can be rather strong.

My own thoughts on this are to find a balance in your comfort. I highly recommend a comfort zone, because we all can find a better way of living in that comfort. It gives us a reality that carries with it security and stability. But, with all that should include that balance. A balance that’s opposite, our comfort zones.

That way of living where we are familiar (comfortable, content) with one half. With that second half being something like a challenge, something new, something we can use to build upon our own selves. We live our days where each comes on two parts. Like the title says, we aren’t only balancing our comfort zones, but with two parts, we’re going beyond our comfort zones.

Find a feeling of accomplishment by knowing a sense of security can be established in a new way, each day. Plan each day to find the success that is new, and born every waking moment. Every single day. Seek out new challenges that don’t come from the things we expect and recognize.

When things come fast and easy, seek out new challenges, get new skills that re-establish us each time. If finding something that is new, is not possible, then instead look onto something currently within us, and improve on that.

When faced with many new doors daily, at least try opening one each day. Without knowing what challenge awaits. Find tools from within a current a known comfort zone, to become more and more prepared for each new mystery we may try each time.

Also learn that even comfort zones can change drastically over time. So even with comfort, should come renewal as well. A circle of balance, where we face every single level as we grow and evolve. What it does is allows us to grow an immense library of comfort, with an even ability to face the challenging and unknown. With every corner covered, we build mastery starting from within. We can’t be unbalanced by the new or the old. Nor the comfortable, or uncomfortable.

-End

Michael Patanella

is a Trenton, New Jersey Author, Publisher, Columnist, Editor, Advocate, and recovering addict, covering topics of mental health, addiction, sobriety, mindfulness, self-help, faith, spirituality, Smart Recovery, social advocacy, and countless other nonfiction topics. His articles, publications, memoirs, and stories are geared towards being a voice for the voiceless. Hoping to reach others out there still struggling.