The sweet spot, the comfort zone….call it what you may, but we all crave it. Problem is, life is dynamic, and things don’t stay the same. Stick with the status quo – do what you’ve always done, and eventually your sweet spot doesn’t feel so sweet. Evolve or get left behind. I guess it’s just the name of the game. Yet so many of us are adverse to change. Seems like an unfair paradigm.
One of my clients just started a workshop on life improvement. She was telling me a little about it during our session today. The course requires much more student participation than she had hoped. After the scary task of putting pen to paper and writing down specific reasons for taking the class, she was asked to commit aloud two specific ways she was going to further her goals in the coming week. Outside her comfort zone she said. I told her it had to be because THAT is where change happens.
It made me think. As a fitness professional, I am constantly telling my clients that in order to produce the change we want to see in our bodies, we have to create discomfort. (The SAFE kind of discomfort: that hurt so good, I know I’m getting stronger kind of discomfort). Change does not happen with the status quo. You have to challenge your system. Let that body fat know it’s moving day. In every workout, I try to get to the place where my body is challenged, and work it from there because that is where change happens. I can feel it. It’s like a blender. If you casually stir the pot, things are goanna move around, but I want to see ‘em dance! Our bodies resist change on a systemic level as much as our minds do. It’s a phenomenon we call homeostasis. This is why doing what you’ve always done in the gym isn’t goanna cut it.
On a purely scientific level, we lift weights to get stronger, but the act of strength training is actually breaking down the muscle fibers. It is in the process of building that broken-down muscle tissue back up that we get stronger. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sometimes the process of change can be uncomfortable; it can be a battle, it may break us down or beat us up, but we come out stronger on the other side. Yet another valuable lesson learned in the gym that applies to “real life.” A physical phenomenon that so closely parallels an emotional one.
I am not saying the process of change always has to be hard, but it is uncomfortable in the sense that it is both different and unfamiliar. But where do we spend most of our time? Our comfort zone. Too often we stick with what we know, even if it isn’t perfect, because we are afraid, lazy or ignorant. We don’t want to rock the boat. We convince ourselves where we are is better than what we don’t know.
Think about it. How many people stay in relationships or jobs simply because they are afraid to leave? It seems easier to accept what we know and don’t like over what we may love but don’t know. Somewhere in our DNA we have become adverse to change, because change causes discomfort. We avoid it, even when it is what we need. But why? Uncomfortable doesn’t have to mean bad. In fact, quite often it means good, we just don’t know, and that in itself can be uncomfortable.
They say the impetus for change is often when we get to the point where the change itself becomes less uncomfortable or threatening than the cost of staying where we are. Try not to wait that long. Sure, you might fall short. Or you might not land where you thought. But aren’t you are a whole lot better off for trying and falling short than for watching your life from the sidelines? Besides, someone who tries never really fails. Every experience (like every workout) presents an opportunity to fortify yourself. If you learn from the process, regardless of where it takes you, you are better off.
Take the leap. Go out on a limb, because that is where they keep the fruit.