Yawning in the comfort zone

No doubt you’ve heard a dozen people tell you by now to do things outside of your “comfort zone”. To try new things and experience hardships so that you know how to deal with them, without which you’ll settle for a life of complacent indifference. The scary part? They’re right.

“Smooth seas don’t make for good sailors,” said a wise man once. Sure, the risk of death and lifelong trauma is higher if you go chasing maelstroms and typhoons, but it never hurts to try maneuvering around some choppy waves every now and then. Once you know how to steer your way through it, it won’t frighten you the next time.

Break your daily routine. Take a day trip to a nearby city by yourself. Try pushing the limits of your creative abilities. Because if you don’t, you’ll catch yourself yawning in your comfort zone. Once you settle down into a flow of daily life, you will start to stagnate. The amazing becomes mediocre and the incredible becomes stale. Every day becomes the same and your appreciation for the world starts to wither. You fall asleep in your comfort zone.

So let this serve as a wake-up call. Every time you find yourself longing for the safety of the familiar or the protection of the known, try to not cave in to it. Instead, jump in headfirst to something you’ve never done before. It will be painful and uncomfortable, but you will come out a different person. Your neurons literally rewire themselves in the brain based on experiences. The more data points you give your brain, the better it knows you as a person.

All of this may sound like wishy-washy pretense right now, but remember that nobody dies on their deathbed saying “Well I’m glad I never learned how to ice-skate!” or “Thank god I never went para-gliding.” There’s nothing like thinking about our inevitable mortality that gets us to go full-on carpe diem mode in the midst of an existential crisis.

So there. The message is to never do too much of the same. Shake it up and keep shaking it for good measure. Never fall into a routine. Always try the unexpected. If you see smooth waters up ahead, create some wild wakes behind you. Realize when you’re yawning in the comfort zone, and most importantly — never fall asleep in it.