The Fluffy Shade of Your Comfort Zone and How to Step out

Beyond our comfort zone is where we grow. Here’s one quick actionable step to help you get there.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” — Neale Donald Walsch

I felt uncomfortable this morning.

When I was out for my morning run, I ran a few intervals (short bouts of running as fast as you can). Whenever I do them, my heart begins to pound frantically in my chest, I get short of breath, the muscles in my legs burn and weaken, my nose and airways get stuck and fill up with mucus… You get the picture.

All that is extremely uncomfortable. Why do I still do it?

Because just as with many other things in life, in training you only ever grow when you get out of your comfort zone. When you accept that it’s alright to feel uncomfortable and that you’ll get through it.

If you exercise always within your comfort zone, you can at best keep your fitness level, your endurance and speed in running, but you won’t be able to improve.

That’s why we need to step out from the shade of our comfort zone, into the light that allows us to grow, even though it might burn us.

Here is a little thought experiment which might help.

Imagine yourself sitting in the shade on a steaming hot sunny day. The sun burns down mercilessly outside and you feel the cool comfort of the shade on the skin of your face.

You don’t want to step out by any means, why should you? It’s just right the way it is, isn’t it?

Outside, you might burn your skin, you would sweat and the sun would blind your eyes. As you imagine it, you can already feel your clothes sticking on your body as they sponge up with sweat.

Thus you’d rather stay in the fluffy comfort of your shade.

Now imagine your toddler has crawled out of the shade and you just spot her crawling towards the street nearby.

Would you hesitate a second to jump up from your seat and run out of your shade?

Of course, you wouldn’t.

You would just go and do it. You would help. You would do what you need to do.

Why did you not hesitate to give up all the comfort you enjoyed happily only seconds before?

Because without consciously thinking about it, you found something else that is more important than your comfort.

This is the one step to get out of your comfort zone: Find something more important than your comfort. Something more important than your fear.

Not just in the very moment, but in your life.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” — James Neil Hollingworth as Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon

Then, whenever you feel stuck, whenever you realize you’re not really doing what you want to do, whenever you feel that fear or comfort keep you from reaching your goals, remind yourself of your true goals.

Remind yourself of what is more important than everything else, more important than your fear and comfort and even you.

This might be health, your family, helping others, or anything else.

Remember that outside of the shade there’s not just pain and sweat, there’s also light helping you to grow. Just as with any plant we need to get out there to really grow and not stay stuck where we are.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Mary Schmich (not E. Roosevelt, see)