The Comfort Zone

Sometimes in life there is a point when we reach certain stability. Maybe we are not rich or we do not have a perfect job but we say that: “it is ok for now”. We have money to pay bills and do some of the things that we like. We not extremely delighted about our life but we say that it is ok for us. I call it a “comfort zone” because this is not ideal but is the minimum that we accept as a happy life. For some people this point is represented for a $50K year salary, for other people means a stable relationship (not great… but mmm…ok), maybe own a nice car, homeownership, or a mix of those things. This is good because you are at a point were finally you feel that you enjoy life and are quite happy. The problem is that many people want to stay in this “comfortable” place only and not move any forward.
Why try to make $100K if you are ok with $50K? Why own a home when you are renting and this is quite ok? Why look for a more fulfilling relationship if our current spouse “is not so abusive” and it is not too bad? Why exercise when you are not too fat? Why having an MBA when a Bachelor’s is “good enough”?

Why take any further risk?
I have the theory that you either go up or you go down in life. There are no middle points. Let’s say that you are a Tech professional with a bachelor who has a good job with Microsoft and you make $120K a year. You are already working 5 years in the company doing the same job and plan to do this for the rest of your life. 1 year later you get “laid off” because the economy turned down not because you are lazy or stupid. You were among the “unlucky” 20% to get fired. You go back home and say: “I am a good guy, why I was so unlucky?”.

If you ask me I will tell you this, if you are making money for any company in the world unless they are nuts, they would never get rid off you. Nobody (in their right mind) throws gold into the garbage and no company lay off employees that are productive and valuable. If you got fired is because they did not saw value in your activities. You thought that being on time everyday and doing what they tell you to do you were going to be fine. When you have an idea to improve a process or develop a new line of business at work you “played safe” and kept it for yourself. After all trying something new implies certain level of risk and you do not want to take it. You were quite happy doing the same old thing and thought that will make it. That is wrong my friends, remember you either go up or go down you can not stay in the middle so you became to attached to the idea of the “comfort zone”.

We reinvent ourselves and all that we do everyday just to keep up. Please understand this is just to keep up. If you want to excel you will probably will need to go more miles than the “extra mile” (between you and me, everybody go the extra mile already).

Instead of thinking about this like overwhelming you need to think this as challenging. I see life like a journey, dynamic and with a lot of new things everyday. If you think that is static then you will see yourself going lower and lower. In this New Year let’s commit to get out of jails of our “comfort zones” and let’s challenge ourselves to do things that were challenging or new. Let’s commit to go to the gym 4 times a week and run that marathon that before looked impossible, let’s start that’s business that we have been postponing forever so we can be our own boss, let’s propose our new ideas to our management at work and let’s get them done. Let’s look for a promotion. Let’s try to make more money so we can build some savings in case we get sick or lose our jobs. We saw many people become rich with Real Estate, we see the news: rates are low, prices are amazingly cheap but we have been procrastinating because the more we analyze, the more we paralyze. Let’s build that passive income for those rainy days when we will not be able to work 80 hours a week.

Finally, when we are kids we dreamt about many things… it has been years since then… when all those dreams are going to become reality? Life is not endless. The time my friends is now. Please let’s stand up, get out of our “comfort zones” and let’s start living the life that we truly deserve. Let’s start to work and fight for that.