Why the Comfort Zone is really uncomfortable after all

If we care to really admit, the comfort zone is not where we really wish to be.  It is a place of convenience, a mistaken place of safety, or even relaxation.  But we know in our hearts it is not the best place for us.

The truth is most times we put up with the comfort zone because of fears and anxieties of doing what is needed to get out of the zone!

However, there are times when we must take the bull by the horns and stage our escape out of the comfort zone.  Plan our getaway, break out of the zone.

Anytime I think of comfort zones, I always think of one of the stories in the Bible that is a classic, even hilarious account of comfort zones.

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and were being offered a ticket to freedom.  Yet the smell, the taste and longing of garlic, leeks were far greater than the milk and honey of a Promised Land.  Understandably the Promised Land had a small print on the contract…the land was occupied by giants.  And the Israelites saw themselves as mere grasshoppers and no match for the current occupiers.

So the Israelites were not really comfortable yet they were prepared to compromise.  They would rather have the whip on their back than the temporary discomfort of fighting giants.  They were in an uncomfortable comfort zone.  However the fight to occupy the land even though it came with a guarantee that they would win, was not tempting enough to uproot them.  They were still fearful which is one of the reasons why we stay in our comfort zones.

Now, I learnt in school that people in glass houses must not throw stones but from where we are seating, anyone reading their story would say they were just not thinking properly.  But we are like them in so many ways.  We can thow stones at them but we are just as guilty.

Examples of the uncomfortable comfort zone

##1  We are in a job that does not offer prospects, pays far less, or makes us even feel less than our worth.

Yet, we choose to stay.  The fear of job applications, interviews, learning the new ropes, perhaps not passing the probation, not finding the grass greener prevents us from making the plunge.  Ultimately, we may never realize our full potential in our jobs or careers.

Now one is not advocating that you don’t carefully pray and plan towards this, thereby creating unnecessary stress or even illness. However, there are times when in your heart you know you have overstayed your welcome, and that nudging in your heart has been eating you for too long.

##2  We have the wrong set of friends or have outgrown them

Sometimes we hang out with people even though we know they are no longer a part of our present and future.  We feel safe with the consistency of old friends.  We know their habits, their ways and their customs.  We know they are not supportive but perhaps due to fear of loneliness, we clutch unto them for dear life.  Wrong friends will not  help you progress.  They will not tell you the truth, or even tell you that you need to come out of the comfort zone!  They see you making the wrong choices but remain the silent observer.  There is a great difference between a friend and an acquaintance.  You sometimes just need to change the labels of some of your friends.

##3  We are comfortable with an illness

This may be controversial.  Sometimes we plod along in an illness, even an incurable one, because we get used to the pain and discomfort of it, and have resigned ourselves to the illness.

When I met Chuck, he had a ‘mentality’ that as long as he took his medication faithfully he could ‘get by’ in life.  He was not particularly living life to the full, but he was in a comfortable place.  A place whereby he could keep his head above water.  Today, that same Chuck is not just free from medication but changed his medical record files!  I challenged Chuck to get out of the comfort zone.  To take steps to recovery even though his medical team had told him that this was his lot in life.

Hope, trust and faith are vital ingredients in getting uncomfortable with illness.  It is a choice however.  But I would like to challenge you not to accept ‘your lot’.  Even with hope, the difference in output will be clear!

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The comfort zone will often try to get a grip on you.  You may sometimes need to take drastic steps in order to release yourself.  Only when we step out of the comfort zone do we see there is a bigger world out there!

About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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