Talk About it Tuesday

Topic: The Craziness of Comfort

So this really goes to a wide variety of things in life…just apply the information where necessary. Thanks to a friend’s product line (Shout out to Stephen Carpenter @ceostephen), I proudly wear my Comfort Can’t Progress shirt. It’s a reminder that growth doesn’t come in a place that I choose to sit in and goes with the flow or the status quo. So why the title when for most people comfort doesn’t really feel terrible? I’ll explain…

Comfort can be described as something that feels good and reminds one of home. If we’re discussing food, it’s about the feelings received while partaking that are synonymous with enjoyment and pleasure. The problem is you don’t get new experiences from the same thing if you do it over and over again. And if you read anything associated with health and wellness, you’ll notice that having too much comfort food is actually bad for your health. How can something that feels/tastes so good be bad for you? Like anything else in life, there has to be variation. When you go on vacations you aren’t necessarily attempting to go to a place that reminds you of home, unless you plan on being there for an extended period of time. Typically this is the case because you want a different experience. When choosing something to eat if you’ve had something several days in a row you’re going to want to change it up a little bit for variety. Doing the same thing over becomes monotonous and eventually you’ll get “bored.” 

Here’s usually where the craziness comes in. While we know that variation and changing things provides us with a different experience, when things become shaky and uncertain it’s easier to run back to what we know versus continue heading forward. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me that meant that I would go back to toxic relationships and friendships versus enjoying the peace of being alone. I would also stay at jobs that drained me completely versus venturing out to find something new even if it was in a new field. I allowed myself to stay stuck in “comfort”. The problem with that “comfort” is it feels terrible. I hated it there, but at least I knew what to expect. Now that I’ve pulled myself out of the foolishness, I recognized that it’s easier just to stay in  try it scared mode than to go back to things that I thought were comfort. 

Now to the present, while quarantine was tough on some I was able to try out and do so many things. I won’t say I was successful at everything, but I’ve found a new passion for diy projects and crafting. This is a world that existed I would have never found if I didn’t just get out and try some things. In 2021, I’ve found that pushing myself has provided me with a new mindset. I believe I can do almost anything and not unless it’s way too complicated for me to understand, I am willing to give it a try. This has helped my children because they have get to see me try and fail as well as keep going and improving. It’s not always fun and truthfully diy projects take me a lot longer than I’d like, but I refuse to give up on this newfound passion. I find doing projects to not only calming, but help me have a sense of accomplishment. Do you have any areas in your life that you need to push out of comfort zone?