After
Comfort zones by their very definition are safe havens; they provide us with a refuge. The problem with them is that sometimes we can end up staying in them too long, subsequently not taking as many challenges on as we should - and as a result things you do take on feel Herculean when in reality they’re really not.
This is a mistake I used to make in late teenage years and early twenties, and this happened for multiple reasons. However as I’ve gotten older I can see what a terribly limiting approach that is. It’s kinda like having a black box fitted to your car in order to stop you from speeding. To be alive as a flawed, ultimately-fragile human is to laugh, love, hate, cry and every dang emotion in between. To be here in the first place, and then to have made it this far, is not a small accomplishment. So, by living in a protective bubble it is a massive disservice to all the things we’ve taken on and overcome throughout the years.
I had an experience in my early twenties where what I thought I knew about life, plans for the future - all of that - was lost at sea. I had to mourn then start over as quickly as possible, and in the process discovered that a lot of things I thought mattered before really didn’t make any sense anymore. It depends how you look at things, but in many ways starting over like this is an incredible opportunity to move on from things that aren’t working or even worse are holding you back. There’s nothing wrong with recalibrating!
What I’m trying to say is this: life is really freaking short, man. The older you get the quicker it seems to fly by and that by itself is pretty terrifying. Thus it’s really important to not be afraid to put yourself out there; to try, no matter what the end result might end up being. By being brave you might just discover a new hobby, or let someone truly special into your life, or develop a newfound appreciation of something you used to overlook. Life has a funny way of going sometimes… the GPS can take you down some strange roads and over mountainous regions that look like something the Road Runner would only be able to traverse… but at the end of the day, we are strong and adaptable at our core, so why shouldn’t we live a little closer to the edge? You never know what you may discover about yourself when you unshackle from what came before.
