Love discomfort

Comfort. Comfort is nice, it rhymes with rice, it is pleasant, it can be cozy, a warm fuzzy feeling. We like comfort, no matter if it’s in the form of “ultra comfort soft toilet paper” or in the form of a a caressing hug from a loved one. Comfort zone is a space which sounds pretty damn awesome, but when applied to life, it can be a war zone for your personal development.

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“Life starts on the other side of your comfort zone”, “Face your fears”, “Place your bed in the snow to grow” – okay, not a real quote so please don’t do that! It can cause some serious problems, but you’ll definitely be way out of your comfort zone. If you do survive the night you’ll have built up a big dose of discipline.

All quotes aside, we know that we need to push ourselves and do scary things to become a better version of ourselves and to learn. But how do we actually do it!? It’s one thing to know what you need to do, but a totally different ball game to actually get down and do it. It’s even harder when it happens to be something that is completely foreign to you, even harder if it scares the poop out of you!

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Biology – Comfort zone is straight up biology. As anything that has to do with us humans we can study it and trace it down to our biology. Why do we like comfort? Well obviously because it’s nice and comfy, but back in the survival days the comfort zone was a safe place to be where you were able to relax with no chance of getting killed.

Optimal anxiety –  Optimal anxiety is like melted butter on toast for ourselves. It’s the stress level just beyond our comfort zone. In this zone, we go ham! We perform our best and are able to whip up greatness. Everything optimal can always be pushed a bit further, and this is when we reach complete anxiety and stress. This is not a place we want to be in! When we experience this kind of stress we turn right around to cuddle up in the comfort of our comfort zones.

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Our zones are not the same size – Every person is different, and so is your level of comfort. You might be able to do things that somebody else have sweaty nightmares about, and the opposite. It’s important to always listen and stay true to yourself when embarking upon a new challenge. If you take on a too big of a challenge too fast, you’ll end up in the blown out anxiety zone and scare yourself to ever challenge yourself again.

Change up your daily routine – Baby steps are still steps. Small changes goes a long way! Change the route you take to work, order something else from your favorite restaurant, go to a new cafe or shop at a different grocery store, do your morning routine in a different order. Small adjustments like these makes you think differently, see new things, explore new things, and make you realize that there’s so many options outside of your little box.

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Say YES – Say yes to more things. Don’t overthink a decision if it’s not a major one and simply go with it. You’ll either figure out that you hate it or you’ll, most likely realize that you love this new experience and get a new zest for life. The most spontaneous things in life are usually the ones we remember and value for a very longtime. Doing more spontaneous and trying out new things will also make your life feel more meaningful, and put a slight pause on the clock. When we get older, sucked into those routines, we all wish that time could slow down a bit. Am I right, or am I right?

Why should you challenge yourself to push your limits?

Reaching your optimal anxiety once in a while will give you confidence, increase you growth and knowledge, enhance productivity, increase your quality of life, and always make sure you are becoming a better version of yourself.

Leaving the comfort of our nests can be scary, but the gains will be as solid as a shiny, oiled up six-pack of abs! Learn to enjoy the unfamiliar, and remember that your comfort zone will always be there waiting for you with open arms.

 

The balls of life

Hitting walls and falling right down the ditch. Curve balls, and all other kinds of hard nasty balls are coming at you at all directions and you just can’t avoid them. Splashing up all over your face, and knocking you the fuck out. That’s what balls can do. They’re not as innocent as they look, my friends.

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The “the road to success” picture that shows a line full of twists, turns, and knots is a picture that I think most of us are familiar with. The same picture should be applied to the road of life. Potatoooe, potato, if it’s basically the same thing I’m not sure, but you get what I’m coming at.

Life throws balls at us all the time. I guess even life gets bored sometimes, and needs to knock us out with some hard balls once in a while to stay entertained. Yea man, life can sure be a little bitch sometimes.  The choices we make, the people we meet all takes us towards different paths. Sometimes we’re in sync with our lines and roads. We are on top of the world, with all this vibrant energy, knowing we are walking the right road with the wind in our hair and the sun on our face. But, even California experiences rainy days, and so will your life. A rainy day here and there is natural, but sometimes the rain just keeps pouring, and all of a sudden we have thunder and lightning, and snow storms, and a frikkin ice age all around us. Nothing makes sense anymore, and our joyful road has turned into a long, dark, bumpy, shit of an experience, and if we don’t watch ourselves it might takes us straight down a cliff.

“We need to die a little to learn how to live”. We do. Hurting is an essential part of life, but hurt becomes dangerous when we never stop to reflect on the pain, and let it take over our lives.

Comfort – Comfort is one of the greatest killers of all time. Okay, a knife and a gun are pretty extreme as well, but when it comes to self destruction, comfort definitely is on top of the list. The feeling of being can a lot of times be because of comfort. We can feel fear to make a new move, or to  change our job, or do something completely out of our comfort zone. “Life happens at the end of our comfort zone”. We hear this all the time, but yet it can be so hard to make the leap and create a new reality. Start small by doing activities that you’ve always wanted to do, but are afraid not to. Go sing karaoke, go skydiving, prepare a speech, put on a full blown dance show in the middle of the street, cut off all your hair. Do something crazy you’ve always wanted to do (nothing illegal though! Young homies, don’t get it twisted!!).

When you start to do small things to challenges yourself it can be easier to change the bigger things about your life.

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Not pleasing yourself – If you don’t love something, leave it, don’t stick around because of the hype everyone else has over it. Don’t believe illusions. Sometime people will tell you that you need to be doing certain things because it’s what they feel is the best for them. From your perspective, and for your life it might not be at all anything like what you’re supposed to be doing. Nobody can tell you what’s right and wrong for you, better than yourself.

Shake up your routine – Sometimes it doesn’t need to be big major life decisions that are bringing us down. It can be the simple fact of feeling that you’re stuck in a boring routine. Honestly, most of us will feel like this at some parts (or plenty of parts) of our lives. You can change this simply by shaking up your routine like a deluxe milkshake with extra extra errthaang!!! Have a spontaneous dinner party in the middle of the week, change the route you take to work, try a new café to get your morning coffee. Shaking things up will make you see new things, meet new people, and just have completely new experiences and interactions in a small, yet very effective way.

Stop hearing what you want to hear – We tend to lean on our friends and family for support when it comes to talking about what we feel, and the things we are going through. This is great! But it isn’t great when the people you choose to talk to tell you exactly what you want to hear, opposed to the things you need to hear. Don’t put your problems in the hands of “word pleasers”. You need people who will give you the straight up, raw advice. It might sting to hear things you don’t want to hear, especially in a time of weakness, but it’s necessary if you want to pull yourself out of the dumpster.

Write that shit down – Journaling is always such a magic way to figure shit out. By writing down everything you’re going through it will be easier to figure out what you need to do, to get on the right path. Maybe you’re realizing that you have to switch the direction completely! When you know what to do, it is so much easier to take the action needed.

Life, this crazy thing we just happened to end up in is a mysterious place. We have no idea what the fuck it really is, and somehow we are forced to figure it out. Life can be hard and it can smack us across the face plenty of times, and boy, it sure does! But it’s because of these smacks we can appreciate how truly beautiful it is to be alive. YOU are alive on this earth right now. Dude, that’s freaking amazing! You will never be alive on this earth in the shape or form you are now, who knows if you’ll ever be alive on this earth ever again!? The beauty of you and your life is a unique little thing that won’t ever happen again. So despite balls in your face, you have to live your best life, being the greatest you there will ever be! Make life proud, and grab it back by its balls!

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