Is Your Comfort Zone a Danger Zone?

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken during the past year? How about in the last three years?

Be honest with yourself.

Have you “put yourself out there” and chased a big ambition? Are you living your dreams? Or, looking back, have you been playing it safe and living in your comfort zone?

Music icon David Bowie said,

“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

Your comfort zone is a danger zone. You might feel safer there, but big risks hide in the shadows. You’re still gambling. You’re still playing the odds. And maybe you think you’ve got it right, but the odds are you’re missing out on some great experiences. You’re wasting opportunities and leaving a lot of life on the table.

Trouble is, people fail to calculate those risks.

Being comfortable and feeling safe is like a narcotic—it sedates a person, numbing the individual to what’s being sacrificed in terms of amazing possibilities. Those sacrifices may remain invisible or be conveniently ignored, but they drain the richness out of life.

Most all of us are drugged up on comfortableness. It’s like being in an achievement coma—we’re alive, maybe doing just fine, but we’re disregarding our dreams. All that comfort and safety come at a hefty cost.