Recently, I experienced a wake-up call that made me realize I had become a bit too comfortable. Is that necessarily a good or bad thing wasn’t really sure? This brought me to the question: Is ease a greater threat to progress than hardship?
In our pursuit of happiness and success, we all strive for comfort and stability in our respective lives and careers. It’s natural to desire that sense of security that comes from our hard work we put in on a daily basis. However, in a world that often glamorizes constant hustle and unrelenting ambition, once you reach a point where you’re not living to survive (fighting/surviving mode) people like me sometimes look at ease with doubt.
But when I brought this up with one of my mentors, he had a different perspective. According to him, it’s essential to grasp that comfort/ease isn’t always an obstacle to progress, rather, it’s our attitude and approach towards having comfort that can significantly impact our personal and professional growth.
So yes, we’ve successfully entered or transitioned into the field we wanted, and we’ve even landed that dream job we’ve always wished for. Now, the question what’s the next step? The answer lies in our hands. During my mentoring session, a few crucial points were brought up, and this are things we’re already aware of, or are already doing to help us stay clear of the complacency and stagnation trap:
1. Setting Meaningful Goals: While enjoying the fruits of your labor, it’s still important to set clear and meaningful goals that serve as a motivation to keep progressing even within our comfort zones.
2. Challenging Ourselves Regularly: I’m not advocating for suffering or struggling unnecessarily, i mean i don’t believe that you have to suffer to be great and everyone knows that life can be hard, and we all face challenges and difficulties that we have to overcome sometimes a silent battles and i am not saying that we should seek out pain or misery, or that we should ignore our well-being and happiness. But what I am saying is that sometimes, being too comfortable can be detrimental to our growth and development. Sometimes, we need to step out of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves to do things that are hard, scary, or unfamiliar. Sometimes, we need to embrace the discomfort and uncertainty that comes with the unknown.
3. Cultivating a Growth Mindset: One thing life has shown me, is that in order to maintain our sanity, we must be willing to embrace change, because life is a season of change and staying resilient and adaptable, even when we’re in our comfort zone, even when you have achieved your goal, Life can throw surprises at us in an instant, and how we respond to them plays a significant role in shaping our future.
4. Seeking Feedback and Keep Learning: Asking key people around you that you work, collaborate or interact with to provide their perspective and constructive feedback on our progress can offer valuable personal or professional insights, and can help us identify areas that might need improvement to push us to improve further.
5. Practicing Gratitude: I regularly take a moment to think about my journey and appreciate the results of my hard work. Recognizing how much progress I’ve made and seeing the rewards of my efforts can be a strong source of motivation to keep moving forward, so don’t take this for granted, be kind to yourself and your past and learn to celebrate yourself.
So remember being at ease isn’t necessarily a threat to progress; it’s about how we approach and manage the comfort that truly matters, the key lies in finding a balance between enjoying the comfort you have worked and build around you and the deliberate steps we take to keep on thriving, to on keep pushing for our progress and growth and remember to always ‘Pay It Forward’
