Life in the Comfort Zone is an illusion

When was the last time you let your Inner Child out?

Inspire deep, relax and start remembering some beautiful things from your past. Turn a little in the past and visualize when you were a child.

As a child, you rarely asked yourself "what time is it?", "What day is today?", "What’s on my agenda tomorrow?" You lived in the present and enjoyed every single day, hour, minute of your life. You were laughing with your friends and playing all sorts of games. It was a wonderland, but yet that was not the most important part of it.

The most important part was the freedom and fun of childhood. What a beautiful time! How could you forget something like this?

Life isn’t any more dangerous than it was, it’s just our constant fear that’s blocking us.

PART I - We are one with the river.

Go with me with this one: imagine we are all born in a river.

Birds are chirping, the wind is blowing gently, the sun is shining, and everything you can hear is the sound of water that flows smoothly.

This is the river of your life.

You know nothing of what's going to happen next, you follow your gut. You just explore the river and swim and without being aware of the dangers that might come up along the way. The river promises to lead you in a clear direction without any precise destination. And you’re ok with it, you accept it.

You know you can’t stop, and you continue to enjoy your journey and live every day as if it were the last day of your life.

As you advance, the currents of the river multiply. You discover bigger fish that you've never seen before. It is a visible sign that you are getting mature.

Despite all the challenges you are going through now, it seems that nothing can stand in your way. Even if there is a giant fish in front of you, you are creative enough to overcome difficult situations. We are always picking up new things and correcting earlier errors.

Childhood and early teenage years are the stages where you experience things and more than likely are are oblivious of the stresses. It’s the time where you keep an open mind to possibilities. You don’t overthink before actually doing something.

And every time you face problems and difficulties you go on and never give up; after all the challenges you have to do with you can still feel joy and enthusiasm.

PART II - With time, problems arise in the water...

Strong currents can hit you hard enough.

You are forced by circumstances to fight. Stress begins to accumulate, your inner voice starts whispering negativity. You ask yourself, "what will happen?" You have no answer. You don’t feel so safe anymore. You start being afraid of trying new things in the water, you become paranoid and you never trust your surroundings.

Now you no longer want to experience, you don’t want to push any limits any more, you don’t want to venture without knowing what will happen. You don’t want to get out of the comfort zone!

As you grow up, all sorts of pressures and problems arise. Some have to do with the type of society you’re living in, some are connected to the relationship you have with your family and friends. You start to change, others don’t recognize you anymore. You do not even recognize yourself so well in the mirror.

It remains pretty easy to pick up some unhelpful lessons such as a lack of trust, inability to communicate etc.

PART III - The puddle

All you want to do is to escape this tense world. You leave the river and you start building your own pond. It is a quiet, no-flowing pond. It has stability, it offers you safety and guarantees you will not encounter big fish and other dangers in it.

Everything goes well for a short while. In time though, the water goes stale, slimy and it starts to smell. You now miss the clear and fresh water of the river. And parasites are nearly impossible to identify as many are too small for them to be seen by the naked eye.

And so, you start asking yourself: is it worthwhile or not to give up all the challenges of life just to feel safe?

The fish are dying, the pond is ruining your health, what do you do?

For many people, having a safe place, a comfort zone, seems an ideal they want to touch. Sometimes a comfort zone can be the result of a negative feeling we've developed about ourselves, and we can hold onto that for long. Unfortunately, that slows our growth as people. A comfort zone can fast become a danger zone.

If you think you're going in the wrong direction, stop right now! Do not make this mistake! Stop looking for that type of safety. Life and success happens beyond the comfort zone.

No worries though, you can always jump right back into the river. You can always make changes. You can always do and learn something new. It’s never too late, just get out of the comfort zone and take action!

The best thing you could ever do for yourself is look fear straight in the eye and say ‘I’ll try and make it!’

If fear and lack of safety would not exist, what are the things you would do from this day on?