On Wikipedia, comfort is defined as a sense of physical or psychological ease and a lack of hardship while uncomfortable are people lacking in comfort. I disagree! I am hung up in the word “lacking”. I think people who are comfortable are lacking. Let me explain.
When you go along in life and stay within the lines, always on the safe side of the street, not taking risks and staying under the radar, you think you are comfortable. You don’t ruffle feathers, you don’t cause problems, you avoid drama… Ha!
That is not constitute LIFE. Not that I desire to ruffle feathers and be that obnoxious guy no one wants around. Far from it. I want to be the person that tries new things, that lives in that uncomfortable zone because that is where I am growing. I want to be shaped. Experience new things. Have new adventures. Dream. Live into the ‘not yet’.
Comfort is a place where boredom sets in. Comfort could easily be defined as eating TV dinners in front of the television night after night with nothing worthwhile to say to my spouse while my kids are glued to their fantasy role playing video games because our life is BORING! And Comfort is where I think those people live that are afraid of going for something larger than they’ve experienced because they live in fear that they aren’t good enough.
Good enough. Ha! I don’t subscribe to that philosophy. We are all good enough. In fact we are better than good enough! Have I always thought this way? No. I have had periods of my life where I thought this way and then periods where my results were less than I had imagined and that tripped me up and I stopped thinking this way. Yet, the older I get, the more I see the value of changing the question from, “When will I get there?” to “How far can I go?” I want always remain outside the comfort zone in some way because to settle in that place of comfort is a bad place for me. I retreat, move inward and backward, and I betray myself by not going for the things I hope for and want to try.
Here is a new belief I’m living by that you may want to try on: I have physical and mental satisfaction because I am reaching for things that make a difference and I am going to do whatever it takes to get there! Comfort is not my goal – I’ll take uncomfortable any day!
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