The Dreaded Comfort Zone
I dont know when Comfort Zone became a colloquialism. But it has long been my least favorite. If a speaker is speaking and speaks the phrase, It makes me mad and I stop listening.
I dont know why! I just know I dont like it. Its dumb...it draws this picture in my head of a circle around me that I refuse to leave. I pity the phrase that includes the word comfort zone because no matter how profound or correct it might be, i discount it, because the author couldnt be smart enough to make up a new phrase for that place.
Dont get me wrong, I have a comfort zone. Good grief...I've grown almost to resent it. I've rebelled against it. I've tried to pretend like it wasnt there. But what I'd like to know is what makes the comfort zone what it is.
In the simplest of terms, the comfort zone has grown to mean the rhytmn of life at which we feel the least amount of stress. Whether that be the places we go, or the things we say, or the company we keep, or our usual pattern of actions in the course of the day.
Can we agree that this is ALL that comfort zone means?! Because lately in a lot of sermons and quotes comfort zone has meant a life-rut. An unappealing place where change doesnt occur and people wear deep wrinkled ruts into the earth. It is a changeless, inspirationless, motivationless void of life. THAT, my friends, is not a comfort zone...I would even venture to say that such a place is really a DISCOMFORT zone...a place where every fiber of your being longs for something new. The place you visit just before you scream, I'M IN A RUTT and climb yourself out.
A comfort zone CAN turn into a rut...no doubt..and thats why for so many years the descriptions have so well served to replace one another. But comfort, my friends, is what we all really strive for in the end, is it not?
Sure...you can say, NO WAY!! I like to push myself and make myself better, faster, stronger, tougher, leaner, hotter, smarter....OK...I BELIEVE YOU!...And if you are one of those people who says they thrive on pushing past their comfort zone and take no encouragement from being comfortable...I would really like to see your bed made of nails with the cement pillow. Oh wait, what? You dont sleep on a bed of nails with a cement pillow? Oh, you like to be comfortable when you sleep. I see.
Comfort is a powerful thing. Comfort implies a sense of competence. Comfort in life or an area is an accomplishment. It once was hard for me to run a mile, now I can do it comfortably. The fact that I am working within my comfort zone doesn't mean I am not working. It means I am working with finese and skill. It means I have grown. Being happy within a comfort zone is what we work our lives for. We want to master skills, we want to acquire furniture in a modest home in a safe neighborhood, We want to make enough money to be comfortable, we want to find a job we can do for a while comfortably, we want things to run smoothly, we want to save enough to retire comfortably. We live our lives in pursuit of COMFORT...
And I say, what is WRONG with that?!
These are the things that people have said against comfort zones trying to make me feel bad for being content..(many of them might post in response to my blog with clarifying points on what they really meant..)
~We can't grow until we break out of our comfort zones.
Not true. Our greatest growth can sometimes come from doing the exact same thing everyday an trusting that God is still with us, even when we arent changing the world. Exercise is often the most over-used genre for this type of comment. The truth is, our greatest growth tool is consistency. I can make very small comfortable changes that over time can have the greatest impact. For example, by just not licking the bbq sauce off of my fingers when I eat chicken wings I can weigh an estimated two pounds less at the end of one year. Two pounds because I didnt lick my fingers.
~God cannot perform miracles unless we get out of our comfort zones.
Not true. NOT TRUE. NOOOOOOT TRUE!! God can do ANYTHING he wants to do. And what if he would likely do better with people who lived contendedly within their comfort zones? Not people chasing some wild dreams. Why not see what an impact God can make in your pre-existing comfort zone. What do you like, what are you good at? How can you use it to Glorify God. You don't have to LEAP to trust your faith. The best illustration of faith was one I heard about how faith in action is like trusting a chair to hold you. Most of us (of normal size) dont think twice about if a chair can hold us. We sit. That is faith. Resting in a belief that a chair can hold our weight. We do that a hundred times a day. Careful though...sitting sounds comfortable.
~Real change cannot take place in a comfort zone.
NOT TRUE...not by my previous definition of a comfort zone. I would even venture to say that real change can only happen WITHIN one's comfort zones. How many times have you embarked on an UNCOMFORTABLE diet and exercise program. One that was extreme and unlike anything you had ever done? Atkins? Slim Fast? p90x? The extremes.. You go and go and are all gun-hoe! And then...SMASH!!! Your face meets a brick wall..."But, I dont understand...sniff sniff...I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I attempted REAL radical change!!!" Yeah ya did...and it wasnt enduring. Thats because we are creatures in search of comfort. We like easy, we thrive on slow and things do NOT happen overnight. Small changes. Comfortable changes. SLOW changes...those are the ones that last.
I'm not saying that I disbelieve in the whole comfort zone theory. I just think we have gotten comfortable with believing that all change is radical and scary. This has left a bad taste in people's mouths when it comes to change. I'm sure that If I were to step out differently and try something new, that it might have a great impact on my life. Of course, it could be a negative one. Let's leave the window open for that possibility too.
I think the comfort zone has its place in motivation and inspiration. There are some people who are called to things that are uncomfortable for them. Missionaries, for example, are often called to live in different cultures...THAT mess is uncomfortable. And I dont care who you are, nothing is as comfortable as America to an American. Those folks might need the comfort zone speech once in a while. I'm sure Neil Armstrong got the comfort zone speech before he shot himself of the face of the planet to walk on the moon. Or are these things uncomfortable? Are missionaries not given tools to adapt cross culturally? Was Neil not trained on what to expect from going to the moon?
Something to think about...
Next time...The Truth As I See it on Motivation.
I dont know why! I just know I dont like it. Its dumb...it draws this picture in my head of a circle around me that I refuse to leave. I pity the phrase that includes the word comfort zone because no matter how profound or correct it might be, i discount it, because the author couldnt be smart enough to make up a new phrase for that place.
Dont get me wrong, I have a comfort zone. Good grief...I've grown almost to resent it. I've rebelled against it. I've tried to pretend like it wasnt there. But what I'd like to know is what makes the comfort zone what it is.
In the simplest of terms, the comfort zone has grown to mean the rhytmn of life at which we feel the least amount of stress. Whether that be the places we go, or the things we say, or the company we keep, or our usual pattern of actions in the course of the day.
Can we agree that this is ALL that comfort zone means?! Because lately in a lot of sermons and quotes comfort zone has meant a life-rut. An unappealing place where change doesnt occur and people wear deep wrinkled ruts into the earth. It is a changeless, inspirationless, motivationless void of life. THAT, my friends, is not a comfort zone...I would even venture to say that such a place is really a DISCOMFORT zone...a place where every fiber of your being longs for something new. The place you visit just before you scream, I'M IN A RUTT and climb yourself out.
A comfort zone CAN turn into a rut...no doubt..and thats why for so many years the descriptions have so well served to replace one another. But comfort, my friends, is what we all really strive for in the end, is it not?
Sure...you can say, NO WAY!! I like to push myself and make myself better, faster, stronger, tougher, leaner, hotter, smarter....OK...I BELIEVE YOU!...And if you are one of those people who says they thrive on pushing past their comfort zone and take no encouragement from being comfortable...I would really like to see your bed made of nails with the cement pillow. Oh wait, what? You dont sleep on a bed of nails with a cement pillow? Oh, you like to be comfortable when you sleep. I see.
Comfort is a powerful thing. Comfort implies a sense of competence. Comfort in life or an area is an accomplishment. It once was hard for me to run a mile, now I can do it comfortably. The fact that I am working within my comfort zone doesn't mean I am not working. It means I am working with finese and skill. It means I have grown. Being happy within a comfort zone is what we work our lives for. We want to master skills, we want to acquire furniture in a modest home in a safe neighborhood, We want to make enough money to be comfortable, we want to find a job we can do for a while comfortably, we want things to run smoothly, we want to save enough to retire comfortably. We live our lives in pursuit of COMFORT...
And I say, what is WRONG with that?!
These are the things that people have said against comfort zones trying to make me feel bad for being content..(many of them might post in response to my blog with clarifying points on what they really meant..)
~We can't grow until we break out of our comfort zones.
Not true. Our greatest growth can sometimes come from doing the exact same thing everyday an trusting that God is still with us, even when we arent changing the world. Exercise is often the most over-used genre for this type of comment. The truth is, our greatest growth tool is consistency. I can make very small comfortable changes that over time can have the greatest impact. For example, by just not licking the bbq sauce off of my fingers when I eat chicken wings I can weigh an estimated two pounds less at the end of one year. Two pounds because I didnt lick my fingers.
~God cannot perform miracles unless we get out of our comfort zones.
Not true. NOT TRUE. NOOOOOOT TRUE!! God can do ANYTHING he wants to do. And what if he would likely do better with people who lived contendedly within their comfort zones? Not people chasing some wild dreams. Why not see what an impact God can make in your pre-existing comfort zone. What do you like, what are you good at? How can you use it to Glorify God. You don't have to LEAP to trust your faith. The best illustration of faith was one I heard about how faith in action is like trusting a chair to hold you. Most of us (of normal size) dont think twice about if a chair can hold us. We sit. That is faith. Resting in a belief that a chair can hold our weight. We do that a hundred times a day. Careful though...sitting sounds comfortable.
~Real change cannot take place in a comfort zone.
NOT TRUE...not by my previous definition of a comfort zone. I would even venture to say that real change can only happen WITHIN one's comfort zones. How many times have you embarked on an UNCOMFORTABLE diet and exercise program. One that was extreme and unlike anything you had ever done? Atkins? Slim Fast? p90x? The extremes.. You go and go and are all gun-hoe! And then...SMASH!!! Your face meets a brick wall..."But, I dont understand...sniff sniff...I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I attempted REAL radical change!!!" Yeah ya did...and it wasnt enduring. Thats because we are creatures in search of comfort. We like easy, we thrive on slow and things do NOT happen overnight. Small changes. Comfortable changes. SLOW changes...those are the ones that last.
I'm not saying that I disbelieve in the whole comfort zone theory. I just think we have gotten comfortable with believing that all change is radical and scary. This has left a bad taste in people's mouths when it comes to change. I'm sure that If I were to step out differently and try something new, that it might have a great impact on my life. Of course, it could be a negative one. Let's leave the window open for that possibility too.
I think the comfort zone has its place in motivation and inspiration. There are some people who are called to things that are uncomfortable for them. Missionaries, for example, are often called to live in different cultures...THAT mess is uncomfortable. And I dont care who you are, nothing is as comfortable as America to an American. Those folks might need the comfort zone speech once in a while. I'm sure Neil Armstrong got the comfort zone speech before he shot himself of the face of the planet to walk on the moon. Or are these things uncomfortable? Are missionaries not given tools to adapt cross culturally? Was Neil not trained on what to expect from going to the moon?
Something to think about...
Next time...The Truth As I See it on Motivation.
Comments