It’s too easy to get too comfortable with what you know and the things that you have going on in your life. After all, being comfortable is awesome. It’s a nice feeling when you get up and know exactly what’s coming your way that day so you can fully prepare for it and breeze through the day. Unfortunately, one little stinker about being so comfortable is that it’s exactly how you can be sure you won’t continue to grow as a person, spouse, parent and leader. Therefore, it’s important that you not let yourself get too comfortable in your comfort zone.
An Everyday Example of Getting Too Comfortable
Since our 4 year old son has two little sisters that are still (sometimes) napping during the day, my wife and I try to give him some time during naps for activities like doing his pre-school workbook, reading or doing puzzles. Anything that is relatively quiet and will get his mind going.
He recently got a puzzle of the United Stated as a Christmas present and has loved using it during these afternoon activity sessions. The first 3 or so attempts at building the puzzle were a bit of a grind. Frustration came about pretty quick and we did our best to keep him focused on learning the approach to building the puzzle as opposed to simply telling him “this piece goes there.”
Once we got him to move past the frustration, we started noticing that he would ask himself the same questions that we would be guiding him with at the beginning. In no time, he was cranking through the puzzle and doing it quickly based on memory.
Now, every day he wants to do it. Not because it’s a fun challenge for him, but for the opposite reason. It was originally a challenge but now he gets the approach, has it memorized and it feels good for him when he can conquer it in 5 minutes and say “hey mom and dad, check it out!”
Getting Too Comfortable? Time to Shake Things Up!
If you think about it, most of us are exactly the same as our little boy. At first, new things are scary, intimidating and usually frustrating. We don’t really enjoy learning new things because it takes us out of our comfort zone. But after a little time, we start to learn whatever it is and get more comfortable with it. Then, we move to enjoying it and wanting to do it all the time because it’s what we know how to do without even thinking.
This is the exact time to shake things up a bit. In the case of my son, we just ordered a new puzzle, this time with 100 pieces instead of 51. This is sure to drive him crazy at first but in no time, he’ll be flying through it saying, “hey mom and dad, check it out!”
Try the same approach next time you find yourself getting a little too comfortable with what you have going on in your life. Maybe it’ll be getting yourself a more challenging puzzle, taking on a new task at work or trying to write your spouse a poem for a birthday. Anything new will be challenging at first but rewarding once you work through it.
Here are some ways you can start to get out of your comfort zone.
Good luck!