The Untold Dangers of Remaining in 'Comfort Zone'.

Abuse my comfort zone? How can I possibly abuse it? You may think.

We abuse our comfort zone when we become obsessed with being comfortable and resisting growth.

As humans, we are expected to grow. Just like we don’t remain a particular age forever because, feel comfortable in that age (0–19) and we were really taken care of (provided our needs) by our parents or guardian, unlike now that we are meant to cater for ourselves as adults. Therefore, if we don’t remain at those pampering ages forever, we are not expected to remain in a certain place (stagnant) forever.

Using the bird, for instance, if it chooses to remain in the cage because the owner chooses to feed it daily, and coerced it into thinking that once it is set free, a larger bird will prey on it. It won’t be able to spread it’s wing wide and fly to see how large the world is or even meet it’s kind. If the bird chooses to be comfortable with its captor, all of these will be impossible. Also, it will likely die in that small cage without seeing the world, meeting its kind, and will have no idea that it can fly high.

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"Comfort is the enemy of achievement.” – Farrah Gray

Mostimes, just like the caged bird is coerced into thinking that once it is set free, a larger bird will prey on it, we also might have been brainwashed into thinking that staying in our safe zone will minimize risk. Therefore, we choose to remain in our comfort zone because we fear the risk of uncertainty — change and failure.

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“The sooner you step away from your comfort zone you’ll realize that it really wasn’t all that comfortable.” – Eddie Harris, Jr.

We all want to be wealthy, famous, admired, etc, but we are scared to put our work out there because we fear rejection, and our sight fogged with the ‘what if’ statement (negative thoughts). You can’t possibly become an exceptional writer, a millionaire, famous business tycoon, and so much more by remaining in your comfort zone.

So, if you can’t attain all of these by remaining in your comfort zone, why remain there for too long, where growth is unattainable?.

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“The comfort zone is nothing else but a graveyard for your dreams & ideas.” – Unknown

The dangers of remaining in our comfort zone are more than the benefits. This includes;

• Sleeping on your potentials — You will have no idea of what you are capable of because you don’t know your true self. Also, as a result of that, shut the abilities that perhaps you didn’t even know you possessed, at the end of the day losing them. Staying too long in your comfort zone removes that extraordinary potential from you.
• Comfortablilty breeds Laziness — You will become obsessed with being comfortable because ‘Comfort is simply... Comforting’. You will lose your strength and brawn to work hard.

• Develop unhealthy habits or addictions — When your fallback activity becomes stress eating or substance abuse, you become addicted to eating wrongfully and badly intakes. At the end of the day, developing health problems or even mental health related issues like social anxiety, reoccurring moodswings, and eating disorders.
• Codependent — When you become too comfortable with a person, to the point of being obsessive, meaning that you cling tightly onto this person. You will find it difficult to recuperate on your own when this person becomes unavailable.

• Inability to face challenges — When met with adversity, instead of facing it head-on and challenging the issues, you will craw back to your shell. As a result of that, quitting early on.
• Zero Growth — There is absolutely nothing to learn in your comfort zone. Therefore, if you are not learning, you are not growing. There is saying that goes, ‘like anything in a confined space, you can only grow fitting the walls that surround you’. This means that learning and development ends within the boundaries. Anything beyond that line is unknown to you.

• Settling — You embrace crumbs because that is what you are used to. When you fear change and failure, you settle with the little you have attained. “Oh, I am scared of sending out my cv to that big firm, it is far and I don’t like travelling, what if they don’t like me or my criteria doesn’t fit”, someone with a truck load of potentials that earns less than minimum wage a month. This is exactly how comfortable and good you will be at settling. Forgetting that in this life, you have to take risks to make it far.

These are the dangers of remaining too long in your comfort zone. However, it is safe to understand in as much as your comfort zone is great for rejuvenating (psychologically recuperate before returning to more anxiety-inducing and uncertain situations), know when to leave and continue with your life. Don’t get too comfortable. Step out and embrace more activities and experiences.

NB: Everyone has a comfort zone to retrace steps and build confidence due to its comforting nature. Sadly, staying for too long isn’t encouraged.

Check out the mindrest’s support to aid step out of your comfort zone.