THREE DECISIONS THAT DESTROY COMFORT ZONES AND MEDIOCRITY

Have you ever felt frustrated with the decisions that you have made and what they have resulted in? Are you feeling as if your business and life are lacking because of some choices that you have made? Are you overwhelmed with the direction that your business has taken and wondering if you can change courses to gain momentum and success? Do you feel stuck where you are and feel as if you cannot develop your business into a thriving entity? Well, I heard it said and these words ring true.

“If you want to accomplish something you have never accomplished before you must start doing things you have never done before.”

Comfort Zones Create Mediocrity

Those words should strike a chord because of its truth. All those words simply means is

Comfortability equals Mediocrity.

Your Comfort Zone is Also Your Mediocrity Zone

One thing is for certain, if your goal and desire is to be an average individual, if your plan is to just be the exact same person you are today, or maybe the same person in five years from now, my advice for you is to stay in your beautifully designed comfort zone. I do not believe that we set out to be mediocre, but it is very easy to end up there and not even know that you are there, which seems to be the biggest problem.

I had been very successful and become very comfortable in my role in a large Fortune 50 corporation. I was stuck. I was stuck in my comfort zone and sliding toward mediocrity.

Mediocrity Is Easy

“If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you’ve always gotten!”

I remember hearing this years ago when I was in my first MLM business. Although grammatically incorrect, this quote dovetails my life years ago and the lives of many others. It is so easy for one to stay on a familiar path and that is because it is familiar. That familiar path is easy, comfortable and predictable—it is safe. And we all know when something is safe it is simply easy to hold on to it. But the problem comes in when that path that we are on does not develop fruit for our lives. Fruit meaning productivity, reaching new levels, reaching goals, actually being able to see growth in your life from the seeds that you have sown, or accomplishments.

If you find yourself completely satisfied with your results then I pray God’s continued blessings over your life. However, if you are like I was and some are, which is dissatisfied with the manifestation and results, here is your reality check. You need to make some strategic, foundational decisions for your life not now but right now.

1. Decide To Do Something Hard

When we think of doing something hard we think that it has to be painful and maybe that we have to lose an eye in the process. No, it means that you have to do the things that you know in your mind that will test you and produce growth in your life. First, you must ask yourself this question, do I stay where I am in my comfort zone, the place that I have not grown any or do I do something hard, different, and challenging that will produce growth and success in my life? I had to ask myself that question and I am asking you to do the same. Ask yourself…

Do I choose comfort or growth?

One of the things that I realized is that my life was a series of choices that I made, no one else. We all have something that God gave us and that is FREE will, the ability to choose whatever path that we want our lives to go on. And knowing that I had FREE will to choose I also knew that I could not complain in the process as to where I ended up. If I choose the easy and comfortable path, I also knew that there were certain benefits that I could not partake in. But if I made the choice to stretch and take a course that challenged me and pulled me and remolded me, I knew that I would reap the rewards that others could never enjoy. Choosing the easy path only stagnated me in a world of averageness, ordinary, mediocrity which was not where I wanted to be and left me dissatisfied and unhappy. So, here is what I chose to do, I stopped my whining and complaining because of the results that my decisions produced. I stopped making excuses for my small minded behavior to not grow. I stopped allowing myself to settle beyond my purpose and the purpose that God had for my life. I knew that I had no right to waste the time that I had been blessed with and mess over it. Being unproductive and choosing the easy path only wastes the time that you have been given to be productive.

Here is what you may not realize, when you make the hard decisions and allow growth to take place in your life doors will open that you never thought would. Opportunities will arise that would never have come your way. You will experience things that you never would have been able to imagine. I am a true testament to that because once I allowed growth to happen I have done things that were unimaginable. I’m a speaker, a blogger, a future author and there are many other opportunities that have come my way and I know are continuing to come.

I did not know how I was going to accomplish it all, but it is amazing how it all works out when you are working toward growing. I am out of that dreaded, success killer called a comfort zone and would never go back to my old way of operating.

2. Decide to Shut Out the Naysayers

You may not believe this but there may be people who will not agree with you. They will question your every decision. You will find that when something is different or you are doing things differently than what is typically expected people tend to not understand it until they see the results. Although well meaning, you will have to discern who is giving you good counsel and advice and who is just being negative. At the end of the day you have to have a conviction for what you are doing and understand that their opinions may just be based on them operating in their comfort zones as well.

You have to often times look at the source of the opinions. If those opinions derive from individuals who are not doing what you want to inevitably do, or have what you want to inevitably have, then you have to weigh their opinions. Those opinions may be coming from a place of dissatisfaction with their own lives, a sense of complacency or just the inability to think bigger and dream larger. Either way, you have to do what is best for you.

I find it interesting how the individuals who made a decision to do something different in their lives and change courses do not ever regret their decisions. These are the ones who refused to be dissatisfied with their lives and become entrenched in their comfort zones to make a change. These individuals bucked the system and shut out all negative forces that counteracted their visions.

Remember that our comfort zones can be like the gravitational pull of a planet. The larger the planet the stronger the pull. Therefore, the bigger the outside negative forces of individuals who value their comfort over their growth, the stronger the pull to keep you in your comfort zone.

It is a must for us to decide to break free of our comfort zones and shut out those negative naysayers and create our new course to follow.

3. Decide on a Destination

If you don’t have a destination, any path will take you there.

If you do not know where you are going you will end up there.

Destinations are vitally important in order for you to end up where you really want to be. For this reason traditional businesses develop business plans. These plans serve as a roadmap to guide the business on a course.

Finding your destination can mean many different things for different people. For instance if you are creating a personal goal you may ask: “What was I designed to do?”

If it is professional the question could be: “What is our team’s ultimate measure of success?”

No matter what your destination may be, we all should decide on what it is before we make changes to the path we are on.

The Bottom Line

You all know that I love movies and one movie that I thought was great was The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Andy Dufresne said something that stuck with me: “You have to either get busy living or get busy dying.” He was trying to avoid being too comfortable and dying in prison. Guess what? Andy Dufresne escaped.

When a tree stops growing it starts dying.

I had to make a choice mediocrity or growth. If my decision was my comfort zone and the resulting mediocrity, I had to stop complaining and live with MY choice.

I tell my kids all the time things might get harder before they get easier. I remember back when I was playing football going from middle school to high school years ago. It was difficult at first, going to practice, lifting weights, watching what I ate, how much rest I got, etc... But eventually it got easier. What was funny is that it was difficult and challenging but at the same time it was the most enjoyable because I saw growth. I saw me lift heavier weights, I saw my body look better, I felt my wind getting better, I became stronger and the accolades came. But, when I wasn’t able to do any of those things and my pears around me were, I was comfortable because there was no challenge or test but I was dissatisfied moreover.

The challenge becomes once you reach a goal and a new chapter in your life that you do not become too comfortable. I can tell you that I do not see complacency settling in anytime soon because of the struggle to get out of it. I am determined to never return to that place. I am enjoying this chapter of my life too much to go back!

I can say what others who have broken free from their comfort zones have said:

I have no regrets and I am never looking back!

Ponder This:

How does your comfort zone keep you from growing? What can you do to change it?