Is anybody in their comfort zone?

Apparently there’s an easier way to live. I often read about it. They say it involves staying in a bubble, keeping in a safe zone physically, mentally and emotionally.  Nobody challenges you and you have no need to reflect or change.  There’s no need for you to undergo the hard work of transformation.  This non-physical paradise island is dismissively called the ‘comfort zone’.

People talk about the comfort zone behind its back: they rail against it and decry it. It’s the easy option, but not the better one. In fact it’s a barrier, a limitation, something to be challenged. You can only be a fully realised human being if you constantly challenge your comfort zone, they say. Otherwise you’ll never reach your full potential.

Horseshit. There are many things worth judging people on – kindness, temperament, generosity – but living in the ‘comfort zone’ is not one of them. There are so many issues with this concept that I can only list a few of them:

1.      The notion of the ‘comfort zone’ is an attempt to demarcate a grey area. None of us is wholly in a comfort zone, none of us wholly outside it.

2.      I don’t know where your comfort zone is. You don’t know mine. End of story.

3.      Suffering is universal. Those in a comfort zone are suffering just as much as those of us pushing our boundaries. And who knows - maybe it’s a ‘comfort zone’ to be constantly striving.

4.      It’s inane to subjectively judge another person on their ‘spiritual development’. As soon as you find yourself judging somebody else’s comfort zone it’s time to take the beam out of your own eye.

5.      I don’t know what your potential is, and you don’t know mine. So judging whether someone is reaching their potential is a lost cause. (But as an aside, I can tell you with 100% certainty that you can go further, be better, and do more than you think you can)

6.      If the world keeps changing and you hide in your comfort zone, then you’re left with an antiquated map of the world. This difference between your map and the real world means that you’ll be rubbing up against the world the wrong way. Often. Maybe this will cause you pain, but more likely you’ll blithely hurt others. And still you’ll complain: “but I don’t understand why they’re so upset”

The comfort zone has become something by which we judge.  Just be aware that it doesn’t exist. And even if it did, life would be no easier there, no matter how it looks from the outside.