Come Out of Your Comfort Zone !!!

One day, me with my best friend Sameer (Sam) were sitting in the park, a nice couple with their child was enjoying that evening in the park. The child was very happy to play with his father and so father was. By looking at them I said,

Sam, what a lovely family, isn’t it?

Sam: Yes, it is…. I want this type of comfortable, happy & enjoyable life.

Me: Indeed!!! May God bless you with this happiness. But Sam I have a question for you, what is comfortable & happy life?

Sam: Can’t you see Rahul? It is in-front of you…

Me: Yes, I can …. (By laughing & looking at that family) but still, I want to hear it from you. What is comfortable & happy life?

Sam: A good job with handsome salary, good bank balance, a pretty & lovely wife, a sweet home with all amenities, a nice car, and off-course 1 or 2 kids as cherry on the top of the cake. A summer holiday on private beach and winter nights at glamorous resort. According to me, this is what comfortable & happy life is all about; I want it and I will do everything for it.

Me: Wow…. that is amazing! Who do not want this type of life, Sam? Everyone is dying to live this life; I think it is ideal life. Isn’t it?

Sam: Absolutely, it’s ideal life and everyone is chasing to get it.

Me: How we get it? What we need to do, to live this type of life?

Sam: We need to work hard, need to grab high package job then only it will be possible.

Me: Do you really think so? A high package job will give you this type of life?

Sam: 100%, why? Don’t you think so?

Me: I have different opinion here. In any private industry our Jobs are not secure. We don’t know, when our company will stop loving us and show exit gate. Everyone is replaceable in private industry; resource dependency is just a myth. On the other hand, after doing all hard work for entire year, most of us are getting only 5 to 8% salary hike. Whereas inflation rate is approximately 5.50% per year (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/inflation-rate-cpi ), medical expenses, school fees, house rent and property rates are touching to the sky now days. Do you think, only with our job & current situation, we will be able to get our dream life?

No, never… believe me. Rather, we will struggle and survive throughout our life. I want you to try this at home when you are alone. Just stand in-front of the full mirror, look at yourself & then look straight in to your eyes for minimum 3 to 5 minutes and ask below questions to you,

is it really me?

Is it really my life?

Is this what, I want from my life?

Is this what, for which I studied 24 long years?

Is this what, for which my parents sacrifice their happiness?

Is this what, for which my parents spent their hard earn money?

I guarantee, some or many of us even may not have courage to look straight into our eyes. We will be having tons of self-doubts, asking questions to ourself and getting their answers are too far.

Sam: My goodness! you are scaring me Rahul….. But what do we do? Do we have any other option apart from our job?

Me: Yes, we do have… We do have multiple ways to earn, grow and live our dream & fulfilled life. But we never think, we never discuss, we never explore, we don’t have courage to do it, this is only because of our Comfort zone. We always want to be in our comfort zone and never go beyond that.

Sam: It is risky, to go beyond our comfort zone. what if, something goes wrong and we lose whatever we have?

Me: Absolutely…. That is the reason … this is called as fear of loss. We born as poor (that was not in our control), we are living and we will die as mediocre (a common man), here is something miserably wrong with us. Because, living life is totally 100% in our control.

Sam: What do you mean?

Me: I am talking about private industries employee. Let’s take our IT professionals life. Tell me one thing honestly, out of 100 employees how many are enjoying their job and earning good handsome salary?

Sam: Only handful 15 to 20 max, rest all are underpaid, doing job for sake of doing and for survival.

Me: Why? Why, is it so? Why 80% employees are underpaid? They don’t want their dream life? Or They don’t deserve it?

Sam: No, it’s not like that, everyone wants it but most of us are not able to get it.

Me: Absolutely…. But then how only 15 to 20% guys could do it, and are highly paid? It is only because, they always go beyond their comfort zone and rest 80% are operates on the same frequency, same daily routine, same daily ways of work, in short they always want to be in their comfort zone.

I have seen, these 80% guys always have fear of losing their job. Most of them are not getting salary on time as well. They don’t know when their company stop loving and show them exit gate. No salary hike, no promotions, still they work from their comfort zone and not ready to come out of it. Most funny thing is, they have no idea, they are operating from their comfort zone. They want to achieve so many things, having multiple goals but zero in action.

Sam: Make sense. But Rahul, according to you, what is comfort zone? Any example please?

Me: Ok, let me give one example, have you ever been into any Zoo?

Sam: Yes, so many times.

Me: That is great! As of now, we are in the Pune city (Maharashtra, India), let us take example of Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park also called as Katraj Zoo.

Sam: Yes, I have been there, thrice.

Me: Fantastic, have you seen a Lion & lioness in the cage there?

Sam: Yes, they also have a Tiger and tigress.

Me: That’s true, what do you think after looking at them?

Sam: We enjoyed, and see how they look like in real.

Me: Yes, everyone does that. But do you think, he is a real Lion or Tiger?

Sam: What do you mean? Obviously, he is?

Me: No, here we mediocre (common man) makes mistake.

Sam: What? I am not getting you, what are you talking about?

Me: Tell me one thing, Let’s say, today we release this Lion to the jungle. What do you think, how many days he will survive?

Sam: Jungle is his home man; he will live happily there.

Me: Absolutely, but for that, he needs to be in the jungle from his childhood to understand the rules and regulations of the Jungle. Now it’s too late, even he doesn’t know how to get his food. He never hunted any animal till day, isn’t it? From his childhood, he always gets readymade food in his cage. Now he might have impression that the food is free in this universe. He doesn’t have to do anything for food. It will come automatically in his plate (cage) for lunch & dinner, Isn’t it?

Now, if this Lion is release to Jungle, do you think he will be able to run faster than Deer? Will he be able to catch him? Even he might be not having that sense, to hunt the deer for his food.

A Lion, who never fought with anyone till day from his childhood, do you think he will be courageous enough and dare to fight with other Lion in the Jungle to create his own territory? A real Lion (a King of Jungle) will kill him just in 5 or 10 minutes, Isn’t it?

He is not a real/original lion but he is just a reel Lion, whose roar does not make any sense.

Sam: Yes, this is true. Because this Lion is in the cage from his childhood and being in his comfort zone, he has become reel lion now. He cannot do much.

Me: That’s what… Now, he doesn’t have any choice. That cage is nothing but a comfort zone for him. Similarly, doing only routine work (9 to 5 job) in our professional life and enjoying weekends in personal life is comfort zone for us. (and for any working professionals)

Not trying new option,

Not extensively exploring our office work & job,

Not learning different technologies,

Not upgrading ourself time to time,

Not putting extra efforts to do soothing crazy,

Not stretching our limits,

Not doing anything out of the box,

Not even thinking of doing something out of the box,

Not listening & understanding to others,

Not being on the time,

Not having visibility in the team,

Not happy with colleague’s appreciation & promotions,

Not having visibility to your Sr. Manager, Director, Sr. Director, Vice-president, President & CEO,

Not participating in innovative activities,

Not showing courage to stand-up and speak for our rights and values,

Not reading books,

Not listening to authorities,

Not feeding to mind (Feed your Mind - Chapter 6, in this book),

Not having multiple sources of income,

Not taking calculated risk,

Not making new friends,

Not interacting with new people,

Not using social-media effectively for what it’s been made for,

Not exploring new cities/states/countries and

The most important is Not changing the Room (Chapter 5, in this book).

These all are the symptoms of Comfort zone in terms of corporate life of any professionals. (Read it again)

On the other hand,

Not helping others,

Not believing & trusting others,

Not being honest with others,

Not discussing our problems with our loved one,

Not willing to accept the others suggestions,

Not able to digest others happiness,

Not suggesting someone while knowing they are on the wrong way,

Not respecting self and others time,

Not validating the facts and going with assumptions or with others words,

Not clearing misunderstanding,

Wasting time in redundant activities like grocery/daily needs/vegetables and cloths shopping (Can be outsource or do it online)

Wasting time on multiple TV shows (Can’t name here),

Wasting time on social media (this is becoming horrible day by day),

Wasting time in arguments with others,

Killing time in travelling,

Killing time on un-necessary phone calls (phone a friends),

Taking things for granted,

Assuming he or she is smart, talented, rich, lucky and so on…

These all are the symptoms of Comfort zone, in terms of personal life.

If you are living with some of these symptoms, that means you are in the comfort zone and ultimately in the golden cage. It’s my humble request, please get up before it’s too late. If not now, then you will never, ever. Believe me, tomorrow will never come.

We all know, to start our life, we need to break and come out of the world most lovely, beautiful, caring, and secure comfort zone called as our mother’s womb. Our age is calculated as soon as we come out of that comfort zone and we call it as our birthday. Logically, our birthday is not the first day of our life, but it is 9 months + 1 day. What I mean, if you are 30 years old, that means you are 30 years + 9 months old logically and actually. But we never count those 9 months of mother’s womb comfort zone. It was never added into our age and in future as well, it will never be added. (Please read this paragraph again)

What does it mean?

Our wings will be open to fly in the sky, when we break and come out of our first comfort zone, called our mother’s womb. If we fail to do so, we won’t be able to see this beautiful world!!! Isn’t it?

So please, come out of your professional & personal life comfort zone today!!!

Take calculated risk,

Run your horses of innovative ideas,

Have courage to do something different,

Unfold your wings of curiosity & Innovations,

You have all the power within, feel it and wake up just like a new born baby. Today is the day, now or never. Because tomorrow never comes. It’s up to you!!!