Over the years, I’ve realized how easy it is to get very comfortable. Comfort for most people is the measure of their success. The more successful you become, the more comfortable you can get. The more money you make, the more complacent you can get. The more your hard work pays off for you, the more likely you are to start to set up on autopilot. This is a common theme. I’ve worked with a lot of high-performance people over the years. Just like the things most people know are not the best for your health, like being on your phone too much, overeating, and drinking too much alcohol. These things should be treated with respect, almost like the way you look at fire. Your success and comfort should also be treated in a similar fashion. You accomplish some difficult things, become a success, and then start letting yourself slip. There's a multitude of reasons. You feel like you deserve all the fun and “free time”. Perhaps you’ve shifted your focus to enjoying the daily comforts. All the while, not realizing you aren’t sharp anymore, you smack the snooze button every day, missing appointments & making excuses. You don’t realize you don’t push yourself anymore, letting the comfort creep in. A comfort zone is a beautiful place where nothing grows. Spending too much time in comfort is a grave mistake, something I’ve dealt with in my own successes. I found myself slipping many times. I’ve so far been able to check myself through the practice of these very uncomfortable hurtles. We experience glimmers of success and let the soft and easy creep in. These are some ways I’ve been able to keep myself in check.
Having accessible mentors - people who have accomplished things you’ve admired. Talking to them feels like you’ve lit the fire in your soul again. It’s helpful for some new perspective on hard or tough situations that can push you through this flat-line comfort crisis.
Read - reading can reinvigorate and spark the fire needed. Reading an inspiring story or reading about someone doing something of great value or difficulty can add to your thoughts and mindset. Giving you the details, you need to look up once more at the challenges ahead.
Aim at something difficult - find something challenging to accomplish and use the things you’ve learned over the years to pursue it with actionable steps. Make sure it's difficult enough to change your behavior. Make it something you’ve wanted to do that's tough but fun or interesting enough to hold your engagement.
Success can hurt you if you let it. We know that, but it's hard to see or feel in the moment. Comfort creeps in so slowly, tip-toeing into our lives. Don’t underestimate the power of stepping back, taking a hard look at yourself, and asking, What am I doing to myself? What promises am I breaking to myself? Finally, the most important question of all is, am I even challenging myself anymore?
Don’t let comfort win
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