I wonder what would happen if we permanently resided outside our comfort zone, would that eventually make discomfort, comfortable? Would we run alongside the challenges we once veered away from? Perhaps it’d make our brains swell up from all the wisdom acquired and our souls in a constant state of revisioning.

Change only feels uncomfortable when it’s first introducing itself, sort of like a new menu that hasn’t quite earned our trust yet. But once we grow fond of the tickling monarch wings of a new tomorrow, we seldom wish ourselves back to yesterday. The trick is making the initial leap despite not knowing where we’ll land. So many of us become trapped in the quicksand of comfort because we forget how quickly we acclimatize to new environments. We forget that where we’re headed is most often better than what we’re leaving behind.

Living outside of comfort full-time is an awfully big commitment, so what if instead, we vowed to try one new thing every day. Just one. Massive or minuscule. If rather than burying our faces in our phone screens, we acknowledged the stranger in the elevator. If we rose before the sun and used the extra time to make our bodies sweat. If we resisted the urge to add heat to a debate, and instead listened with an expansive mind. What then? What do we have to lose from adding a little zest to a perfectly bland cuisine? Comfort maybe, but at the price of a budding appetite.

If we were meant to stay planted in tiny flower pots without room to stretch our roots, there would be no point to our being. We’d be existing but we wouldn’t be living. Racing one another to mediocrity and stunted growth.

Someone once told me that comfort is the most detrimental thing to the adventurous spirit. I believe that comfort feeds on those most susceptible to reluctance. Those who become hesitant around new settings, friendships, habits, traditions, or worldviews are closing themselves off to a plethora of new possibilities – a decision that is propelled by fear.

Sometimes progression means landing in poison ivy rather than a field of wildflowers. Sometimes it means getting hurt before we can make it to the place we’re meant to thrive. But that’s okay because we still got our feet off the ground. And sometimes even a wrong turn can lead to a step in the right direction.  

So say “yes” when the knots in your stomach would rather say “no.” Shoot for the moon and stars when you’d rather aim low. If you push your boundaries on a daily basis, I promise you, something brilliant will come of it.

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Photo by Sepehr on Unsplash

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