What is a comfort zone?
It is a bubble within where you feel at ease.
Outside this bubble, there are things which are unfamiliar or unknown. The space outside our bubble is scaring, is where we face our doubts and insecurities. That’s why it’s so important to go out of it. We have to learn how to escape from our own bubble because permit us to learn. And when we learn, we grow. Staying always inside of it means don’t learn, don’t discover. And this is awful!
When we are children we go out of our comfort zone with ease; because almost everything is outside. When we are adults we think “okay, now I know enough, that’s it” and we stop to discover because we think it’s fine. But it’s not. We discovered so many things every day when we were children. If we didn’t go out of our comfort bubble we didn’t learn how to walk or speak, for example. Then…we (or better, the society where we live) think that the things we learnt are enough to live. And that’s the point where we have lost our capacity to discover. The discovery is pure joy. If we lose this awesome capacity, we lose an amazing opportunity to joy.
What’s out the comfort zone?
There is the challenge zone, here is where we learn, where we have excitement! And this should be our main goal in life. Be excited! Most of the people think the goal is to be happy, but it’s not, at least, it’s not enough! Have a happy life can mean have a boring life. But if you have an excited and happy life you’re done. You don’t need anything else. Our enemy is boring. A boring life is inside the comfort zone, an excited one is in the challenge zone. Obviously, you don’t have to be in the challenge zone all the time, if you want to be happy, at least. Everything in life, and especially in this topic, should have a BALANCE. There are periods in the life where is better stay in the comfort zone and other in the challenge zone.
Going in and out these two zones is the secret of a happy and exciting life. And travelling is all about this.
There’s another zone, called the panic zone. This is where your farther limits are, and you shouldn’t go there because is too much for you. If you go there you’ll probably panicked and can be a shock for you. Better avoid bad situations.
So how to accomplish that?
Extremely simple, just do it! Just go! Don’t think too much! More you think more fears come out. Follow your gut. In our logic society, the gut seems like an enemy. Everything that is not logic is not good. Logic almost represses gut feelings. I perfectly know that a choice made with the gut is much rewarding than a one made with logic, there are many studies which say that.
But, also here, a balance is a must. Unfortunately, our society brings us to have less and less gut, becoming more logical instead.
I really believe that travelling start with your gut, and travelling itself helps you to improve your gut. It’s a vicious circle!
What do you think?
Always curious, keep exploring, Wo/a\nder
Francesco
An Italian Wanderer 