Thoughts From The Wilderness – Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone(Part 2)

In Part 1, we examined “what do you instantly think of when you immediately read or hear the quote?”

If you’ve happened to just stumbled across Part 2, you can take a read of Part 1 here – Thoughts From The Wilderness – Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone(Part 1)

The quote “life begins at the end of your comfort zone” or quotes similar to it and the images they create in our minds can rightly or wrongly scare us.

They scare most of us to only end up shuffling about in our rigidly defined comfort zones, never getting close to touching the boundaries that define them. Or on the other hand, it scares us to create a mid-life or life-altering course correction, which causes a few of us to head off to rock-climb in the summer and ice-climb in the winter.

In Part 2, we’re going to look at the following two questions:

Does “Life Begins AT The End Of Your Comfort Zone” have any application in the life of an ordinary run of the mill soul like you and me? and

Is the issue at hand, perhaps the definition of “your comfort zone and how to expand it? (without the pooping your pants scare scenario)“

Tackling the first question, does “Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone have any application in the life of an ordinary run of the mill soul like you and me?”

The short answer is a resounding – yes!

Our lives are meant to be exciting; fulfilling; meaningful; impactful; brimming over with new experiences. All of those and other components as well can be defined any way you want.

But, and this is “a big but” and speaking from experience, you don’t really get all of these things without pushing out towards the edges of your comfort zone.

So, are you saying I need to try this?

Well, you can if that’s what you think you need to do.

Just don’t ask me to come along. I’ll go for the plane ride, but not feeling the “jumping out part just yet.”

Our lives then are not meant to be lived in the safe and secure centres of our comfort zones. Unfortunately, for many though, we tend to stay at or near the centre of what we’ve created or defined as our comfort zone.

And we stay there because it is comfortable. Very comfortable.

Any movement away from the centre that heads us towards the edges of our comfort zones involves change and most of us don’t do “change” very well. Why? Because changes in most forms make us uncomfortable. Therefore, it easier and more comfortable to hover around the center. It can be a vicious never-ending cycle.

It’s as simple as that.

In other words, to live life, and the only way to REALLY LIVE LIFE is to start to step out and any from the centre of our currently defined comfort zones.

Therefore, assuming that “Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone” has application in our lives, let’s take a look at the second question.

Is the definition of “your comfort zone and how to expand it? (without the pooping your pants scare scenario)” the issue.

Our comfort zone is our comfort zone. We’ve defined it; we’ve created it over time and that is where we reside.

Some of us will have a large defined comfort zone, while many of us will have a rather narrowly defined comfort zone in which we are comfortable.

If the quote, “Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone” is causing you to “poop up your pantaloons” because there is no way on this side of God’s green earth are you going to be found dead doing……

……then why not simply expand your comfort zone?

Moving away from where it is comfortable can simply mean moving towards something that is different or slightly challenging.

It doesn’t have to be the photo collage above.

Now, it could be if you want and think you need to go there.

And this is the beauty of expanding your comfort zone. You can tailor it to you.

How fast; how far; what new experiences; what do you want your new comfort zone to look like?

It’s all up to you.

How then?

Here are a few examples that I personally tackled over the past couple of years

• Signed up for a free online university course
• Went to a film festival(s)
• Started a blog
• Submitted material to be published(and succeeded – yay me!)
• Fished on  a commercial lobster boat
• Attend several author’s lectures

Each one of those examples required me to move away from the centre of my own comfort zone and add a different and exciting element of “living and life” to my own life. And by doing each of those things and others as well, my comfort zone expanded each time just a little bit.

And that is the end result you’re looking for – expansion.

And when our comfort zone expands, whether it is small steps over time or in big increases, it never shrinks back to its original size.

Remember, to live life, and the only way to REALLY LIVE LIFE is to start to step out and any from the centre of our currently defined comfort zones.

Moving towards the edges of our comfort zone is “where the magic happens.” Where life becomes exciting; fulfilling; meaningful. Where we come to the realization that this is how life is meant to be lived.

That there is so much more richness; so much more to experience.

Often stepping out of the comfortable middle, results in far more than we could ever imagine.

Staying in the middle though is the place where “living life goes to die.”

From everything that I know, we only have one chance at living. Being in a place that is comfortable is easy because it is “comfortable.”

But, the middle is a poor spot to be in.

You may disagree, and that’s alright. But, don’t blame me if you wake up dead one day and think, “fu@k – settling in and living in the middle all my life sucked really large.”

Taking the steps can be scary for sure, but anything worthwhile never comes without some sort of a price.

Bungy jump if you think you need to or perhaps sign up for a free online university course. Regardless, just move out of the middle and towards the edge.

Remember….

—  get outdoors; find inspiration; discover yourself  —