It’s understandable to want to stay inside your comfort zones. After all, it’s the easiest thing to do! It’s where we feel safe, where we don’t have to open ourselves up to criticism and hurt, and where we can avoid making tough decisions.
Despite these so-called benefits, are we really doing ourselves a disservice by not putting ourselves out there? What are we missing? Below are some reasons why staying inside your comfort zone is ultimately hurting you:
- It Takes Action to Create Change. If your life isn’t where you want it to be, then blame other people all you like, but you’re the only one truly responsible for your circumstances. If you stick only to what you know, without ever-changing, how can you expect your life to get any better?
- You Can’t Grow Unless You Stretch. Without stretching outside of your comfort zone, you’ll never grow as a person. Think about people who are masters in their field. Do you think they weren’t scared before they started? Do you think it was easy for them to try something new? Did you think they had instant success? Every time you take a small step outside of your comfort zone, you grow as a person. Your comfort zone grows bigger as a result, making it easier and easier to stretch yourself to new limits.
- You’ll Never Discover Your True Identity. If you stick to what you already know, then you’ll never find your true identity and calling in life. Even if you think you’ve already found it, there could be something you haven’t tried that lights you up and introduces you to even more amazing possibilities. Taking risks expose parts of you that might otherwise have remained hidden. They can show you that you’re a lot stronger than you ever thought you were. In turn, these new realizations will make it easier to try new things in the future.
- Sometimes Holding Back Can Hurt You MORE. When you know you’re holding back and staying within your comfort zone, it feels uncomfortable. You get that nagging feeling that you should be doing more. Perhaps you’re frustrated because you want to develop new friendships but are too afraid to try. When this feeling becomes more painful than the thing you’re really scared of, you will push forward and venture outside of your safe space.
It’s not about taking drastic action and doing everything you’re terrified of. It’s about taking small steps, on a regular basis, so that your comfort zone just keeps on growing. What small steps can you take to widen your comfort zone? I’m interested in any thoughts or comments that you have.
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Looks like we have another toxic positivity that is known as self-help guru over here. Allow me to explain. This is a common technique used to brainwash. And before you blame other people blah blah blah, let me tell you something when you belong to the disabled community. You definitely have the right to blame other people. Would you like to know why? One word for it. It’s called ablism. I don’t know the statistics for unemployment with wheelchair users, but for blind people it’s around 73%. Most of the ones who are employed end up in toxic situations because they did not get the job through somebody they know. I had a couple of friends get lucky, because after so many rejections based on someone, they know such as a Mobility teacher, who obviously is someone without a disability, put in a great word for them. The company trusted the friends, Mobility teacher, and she’s not in a toxic environment bless her soul. So the next time you want to point the finger at everyone else being a failure because you sound like a snob you might want to think about things like that. You can’t because insert disability here Wheelchair users, and blind people get that quite often. No I’m not a wheelchair user but I’ve been severely visually impaired since birth, and according to idiots at UMass Amhurst, I’m not capable of anything yet I taught myself German along with wasting time at that school, then afterwards went to one of the most elite music schools . Berklee College of music who knew and took the words out of my mouth when explaining to them the disability discrimination about you can’t study music here because if you want to be a music teacher, you need to be able to cite read. As I was ending, that sentence, the woman mention well under the Americans With Disabilities Act considering you have an issue that goes against sight reading you’re not going to be forced to do it. I told her most definitely I understood that but tell that to Christopher Hawthorne, who probably doesn’t work at UMass Amhurst anymore. He was the head loser of the music department. I never got to participate in any activities and I forgot how to play so many pieces, classical and bossa nova ones at the time. Well, then I finally transferred to a music school in Germany and got my education over here. That was down in Freiburg now I live in a different area closer to the Dutch border seems like a little Nazi village though. Nice that it’s introverted but another set of people holding me back you can’t you can’t. All I have is my husband and his toxic family. No such thing as remote location in these ridiculous regions. A woman over the phone had the audacity to tell me well sorry that you’re blind, but we can’t send the language teacher to your house because I was interested in learning Dutch. First of all who the hell said I want a stranger at my house? Sidenote, I was blackmailed back in 2022. I don’t want strangers at my house in general and I certainly don’t want one after being blockmailed. my husband is an electrician and we have a phone system installed so I don’t have to open the front door at first. It’s already daytime here. I don’t know where you are in the world little guru, but have a nice day. You just like any other toxic positivity, self-help writer taught me something else. I can give someone else the same BS condescending lectures that you do and feel good about myself. I guess that’s what we’re supposed to do isn’t it? Disgusting. Well whatever floats your boat if that raises your self-esteem then so be it. This is why I don’t also associate with most people in the blind community. There are some of them who just like people who have eyesight can be very toxic and condescending because you’re not like them. Well freedom to Xpress I suppose I can say the same, correct? Again have a nice day or happy trails which ever you prefer