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The Danger of the Comfort Zone

And Why You Should Get out of It

By Hannah TaylorPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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The photo above pictures one of the seven wonders of the world, Victoria Falls in Zambia Africa. The picture can not, in any way, do justice of what I was able to see with my own eyes. The rainbow completed a full circle around the cliffs and the falls go for about two miles. The picture, however, was captured as close as I could get without plummeting to the bottom. I find myself doing things like this quite often, flirting with death considering—that is where I feel most alive.

I am convinced that the most dangerous place to be is your comfort zone. We never have any trouble dreaming, its the working, the getting up, the trying, and the failing. The fire for success burns in all of us, but most of us let it turn to ashes before the flame even forms. Everyone has a different vision of what it is to be successful. Whether that be money, recognition, a family...we all have some idea of what place we’d like to reach assuming that the journey there will ultimately be worth it once the happiness is fulfilled at the destination.

This is not enough. Knowing what you want is important but it is never enough. Working towards it is still not enough. You can be doing a lot more, and still not be getting a lot done. Do not confuse movement with progress. There are a lot of us just running in place, staring at the starting line. However, fear makes its home at the starting line. That feeling in your stomach when the gun fires is the only thing that keeps you from the race. The fear drives us, or it keeps us standing still in our comfort zones, while the finish is everything you are capable of. We all have the means and resources to achieve, but do we have the guts to fail? If you aren't failing, you aren't working hard enough. Anyone who has accomplished anything magnificent, didn't accomplish it until the last try.

We're taught to move along the lines of what is safe. We are told our whole lives to "have something to fall back on" or have a plan. I've never quite understood this. Plan B only distracts you from Plan A, and if I'm going to fall, I want to fall forwards, not back into the mediocre, but forward into the area of adversity. In order to be successful, you have to be a little delusional. Taking risks is fear in and of itself, but it is also fulfillment—it is where success begins.

What if, at the end of your life, you had to stand before the potential "you's"—the people you could've been, the talents you could've used. As if they'd look at you disappointed for settling for an average life, for longing for greatness but never removing yourself from the safe space where failure doesn't exist because you only allow inside what is simple, what feels right, whats comfortable. Yes, this can be a safe place to stay, but safety is never found on the same playing field as success—as freedom. Your comfort zone is a jail cell, except you aren't locked in. The door is wide open, but you've made your home in a place that can't hurt you. Until one day the door slams shut, and the potential you's get locked in the cells next to you. Take advantage of everything you are given, you can not take it with you when you die. Expand and exhaust all of what is placed is front of you for the sake of fulfilling everything you are capable of. When you use what you have, failure is inevitable. However, I’d much rather have failed an attempt than not attempted at all—living in a sea of regrets and eventually drowning in what could have been.

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About the Creator

Hannah Taylor

I know enough to know I don’t know that much, thank you for coming to my ted talk

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