The Paradox Of Shrunken Comfort Zones

We Like Comfort.

Comfort is safe. Comfort makes us smile and feel happy.  We think our Comfort Zone is safe.  A good place.

We Don’t Like Change.

“I used to have a comfort zone where I knew I wouldn’t fail. The same four walls and busywork were really more like jail. ”  ~My Comfort Zone

Change introduces us to the unfamiliar.  Unfamiliar stuff  makes us uncomfortable.  Uncomfortable makes us frown and feel crappy.  We don’t want to feel crappy, we avoid change and embrace the comfortable familiar.

While we languish in the faux-safety and goodness of our familiar Comfort Zones, by the hour, change roils and swirls around us.  Attitudes, beliefs and politics are changing.  Behaviors, expectations and values are changing.   Knowledge, opportunities and possibilities are changing. Conversations are changing. Distribution is changing.  Technologies, tools, methods and competition is changing.

When things around us change and we don’t, things previously done comfortably don’t generate enough of what we need to be comfortable. Ut-Oh.  Our Comfort Zone begins to shrink.  Shrunken Comfort Zones become uncomfortable.  Paradoxically, the very things that made us comfortable, begin to make us uncomfortable, unhappy, frowny and feeling crappy.  Avoiding change actually shrinks our Comfort Zone.

The Shrunken Comfort Zone Paradox

“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress” ~Niels Bohr

The only way to expand our Comfort Zone is to shove ourselves uncomfortably outside our Comfort Zone, embracing and engaging in the very change that makes us uncomfortable.  I know.  It sucks.  But there you have it. Now that we have met our Comfort Zone Paradox, what should we do?  How do we progress?

The “Fail Faster To Succeed Sooner” Solution

“No, no, you’re not thinking; you’re just being logical.” ~Niels Bohr

The question is, how do we progress?

First reaction, “Do Something”.  [That is correct.]

Second reaction, “Let me think about it.  Let’s be logical.  Let’s think about it some more. Let me research it.  Let me get ready to get ready, to get ready, to get ready….”  [This is incorrect.  This is Creative Avoidance. Avoid Creative Avoidance like the Swine Flu or Herpes, or the bi-polar ex. ]

Russell Shaw has a great post titled, “The Secret To Becoming A Top Listing Agent”  Russell sums it like this, “The secret to becoming a top listing agent?  First become a really crappy listing agent.  Become a really crappy one, then a bit less crappy, and so on.  That is the actual path.  There is no substitute for “stage time”.  None.  Fail.  Fail more and go right on doing it.”

David Kelly, CEO of IDEO said it like this, “Fail faster to succeed sooner.”

David and Russell are both right.  Are we ready to get started?  If not, why not?  What will happen if we don’t?  We are surrounded by cataclysmic generational change, what happens if we don’t?

Two Master Keys That Unlock Success

1.  Untended Comfort Zones shrink.  Paradoxically, doing uncomfortable things expands a Comfort Zone. Therefore, in thought, deed and action, we must embrace and engage in change.

2.  Don’t over think it.  Don’t employ Creative Avoidance.  Instead, Ready, Fire, Aim.  Do it now.  Do it crappy, fail faster, learn faster, do it less crappy, do it faster, learn, do it better, do it faster, succeed, grow your Comfort Zone, get uncomfortable, change, do it crappy, do it faster….Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

If It Was Easy, Everyone Could Do It

You can’t have winners without losers. Yin-Yang.  Pain and Pleasure.  Happy and Sad.  Passion and Apathy. Rich and Poor.  Smart and Stupid.  Surprised and Disappointed. Etc.

Whata we gonna do?

Photo Credit:  Get Out of Your Comfort Zone by ~slickwilly5891 on deviantART

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Thanks for reading:-)