Comfort Kills

As I sit and enjoy the last few days of vacation with my family and friends, I can already feel the pull to get back to work.

Not so much in the worldly sense of “work” as it pertains to my job. Rather, getting back to the task of pushing my own boundaries.

To me, being back home in the town I grew up in represents comfort. A comfort that I ultimately realized would prevent me from reaching my full potential.

And while I enjoy these brief moments to relax and soak in life, I know that this interlude is made even more impactful when juxtaposed against the times I have been the least comfortable.



Because growth and change happen in the extremes.

I think for many people, they would prefer to live their lives somewhere in the middle. To exist in the median. To have the maximum amount of pleasure for the least amount of work.

It is an instinct that has been crucial to our survival, up until recently. Now the modern advances that have allowed us to get by with doing less are beginning to betray us in the long run.

We live in a world that encourages short cuts and instant gratification. And it is all too easy to fall into that trap.

As a result, this mentality begets a comfortable average. A stagnation in one’s development that never extends outside of what we can clearly see and touch.

Many often settle for the security of the known, because a shoreline within reach is an amenity we are too afraid to relinquish.

We are always seeking comfort. We lust for its constant companionship.

But the reality is, we can do very little to make the world around us more comfortable. We just become better at doing less and less to shatter the illusion.

And in the event that something disrupts our delusion of contentment, we are wholly underprepared to overcome such an obstacle.

In the worst scenarios, this can prove to be immediately fatal. At best, our desire for convenience causes us to die the slow painful death of mediocrity.

Therefore, we should be building our resilience in more and more situations; continuously seeking ways to get out of our previously established comfort zone.

Photo Courtesy of NonProphet Media

Our goal should not be to constantly remain in a sheltered place. Rather, in all circumstances have the ability to find solace.

This can only be done through embracing our own suffering. By finding the limits of what we believe we can withstand and going beyond.

Just as smooth seas never made skilled sailors, although the harbor is safe that’s not what ships were made for…