Pub Note ~ September 2022

pub note

The Comfort Zone: WHERE DREAMS GO TO DIE

By Brian Lunsford

“The biggest rewards in life are found outside your comfort zone. Live with it. Fear and risk are prerequisites if you want to enjoy a life of success and adventure.” — Jack Canfield

Forget Top Gun’s “Danger Zone.” For many, their theme song is the highway to the COMFORT zone.

I heard someone say that comfort is like a drug. Once you get used to it, it becomes addicting. For example, give a weak man consistently good food, cheap entertainment and a love interest, and he’ll throw his ambitions right out the window. The comfort zone is where dreams go to die.

It’s easy to get into a rhythm of just doing the same thing over and over — it’s safe and secure, and that can feel good. But what are we missing out on staying in that comfort zone?

Comfortably Numb

It’s to the point in our society where many people do not even realize how comfortable they are, moreover, what they are losing by perpetually staying in this state of complacency. We are all guilty of it in some way and witness it often: The parent who opts to sit in their climate-controlled vehicle on a gorgeous day scrolling social media while missing their precious child laughing, talking and scoring goals just 200 yards away on the ballfield. The person poolside who runs for shelter during an afternoon sprinkle as if it were raining down acid from the sky. The friend who has the resources to travel — or even move — but is too content (not to be confused with happy) to venture away from their hometown, even for a vacation.

The Lazy Fight for Comfort

Do we really need to exert that much energy to get that front row parking spot at Target? Wait that long for a third-floor elevator? Complain that much about the “Florida heat”? It is possible to train ourselves to embrace, enjoy and even choose to do harder things. Walk from the rear of the store parking lot to get in our steps for the day. Take the stairs in the hotel to work off that sugary coffee we got in the lobby. Get out in the sunshine for the incredible energy, vitamin D and cleansing sweat it provides us. Our minds and bodies crave these things, even if we do not realize it. We can defeat laziness by becoming uncomfortable.

Fortune Favors the Brave

Good fortune actually comes from being uncomfortable! Getting up early to exercise, eating healthy, growing a business — all are not easy to do, but those actions usually provide good health, good looks and good finances.

Humans are built to engage, experiment and challenge ourselves both physically and mentally. Without pushing ourselves, we have no hope for growth. In his book, The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self, Michael Easter calls it “purposeful discomfort.” Easter recently shared, “’Listen to your body’ is bad advice. Our bodies default to cheap comforts that bring long-term problems. Bodies prefer us to be lazy, binge junk food, zone out to garbage media, exaggerate risk and generally do whatever is easiest right now.” I am a big proponent of this concept, as are many of my F3 workout buddies. By not getting out and pushing ourselves, we not only let ourselves down, but also our families, friends and communities because we will not be ready for the challenges ahead. In F3, we lovingly call this type of person a “sad clown” and encourage them to get off the couch and into the game because we’ve all been there. This does not mean all of us must hike through the frigid Arctic tundra or risk everything for a new business idea to step outside of our comfort zones. But if we can find a way to consistently do things that are a little harder in our personal and professional lives, then good fortune often follows.

Are you stuck in sluggish, ambition-zapping comfort? Think about what could be waiting for you on the other side if you stepped outside of your comfort zone.