Your comfort zone is a trap

She's not gonna be comfortable for a long time...

Your couch is plush. Your feet are kicked up. Your belly is full and if it wasn’t, your refrigerator is. You have successfully carved out a comfort zone. Now, kill yourself.

Yeah, I went a little overboard with that. But once you get into that comfort zone, what’s the motivation to keep moving onward and upward? Comfort zones are deceiving little boxes where the variables are all known, the outcomes are all planned, and security abounds.  In this type of environment, evolution comes to a screeching halt.  Evolution is a result of adaptation. Adaptation occurs in response to changes in the environment. So if your environment never changes, it’s safe to say that you won’t either. You are an awesomely sophisticated machine and efficient to boot. That means once you’ve suitably adapted to an environment, you won’t waste a bit of energy on any further adaptation.  

No more adaptation = No more evolution :: No more evolution = No bigger, stronger, faster, smarter You.  

And that sucks.

I like comfort as much as the next guy, but is it worth sacrificing the next, even better version of me?  Is it worth setting to the side The Awesomeness Consultant v 2.0? And subsequently versions 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55… I gotta say no. 

So, what is there to do? Seek the challenge.  Cooking a healthy meal tonight may be uncomfortable. Running a couple of miles tomorrow may be uncomfortable.  Writing a business plan next week may be uncomfortable.  But you won’t be stuck in the trap. You will be evolving.