Where is it, your comfort zone?

Self-optimisation is very much on trend. Fitter, more beautiful, better. Good is never good enough. 

From around mid-20s onwards, the body slowly starts to decline again. I seem to have reached the peak of my cognitive abilities and physical attractiveness. I think to myself: "Shit, is that supposed to be the peak? There must be more I can do. I can still get more out of myself, optimise myself." I search the internet for help. YouTube suggests a video to me in which I'm told how I can advance my personal development. I should simply leave my comfort zone. To slow down my mental decline somewhat, I give the video a chance. 

A guy confidently tells me that I have no personal growth if I only stay in my comfort zone. That is, if I only ever do the same things, always move in the pleasant feeling of security and constantly wallow in my routine. I would otherwise become soft, weak and unstable. No, I certainly don't want that! 

To break out of this, he also gives some tips. I consider which of his tasks I could tackle. These are supposed to challenge you, but not overwhelm you. He suggests: "Why don't you go to a party sober." "Too extreme," I think to myself. The young man speaks of the panic zone when you leave your comfort zone too far, strain yourself too much and try things that are too extreme. I'd rather read a book that takes a different perspective. So I'm supposed to shake up my worldview a bit. That should at least broaden my horizons. 

Another website suggests giving a speech on a crowded bus or lying down on the ground in the middle of the pedestrian precinct. Think to yourself: "Fuck off, passer-by, who thinks I'm a nutter." This attitude is what really makes you self-confident!

Similarly unpleasant sounds the suggestion to eat something totally disgusting. That takes effort, your mental strength will thank you for it and if that's not enough, you'll also get a mega story out of it.

Another suggestion involves trying a new sport. Why don't you get beaten up properly at a boxing club or discover your dancing talent at a salsa class. With any luck, you'll find a new hobby in the process.

Effort, shame and inconvenience as the price for becoming ever better, more far-sighted and more self-confident? Escaping routine, trying new things to grow personally? So many of these tips and tricks sound a bit ridiculous at first, but basically they pursue a good purpose: to gain new experiences, gain new insights and thereby become a new, perhaps even a better person. But is the comfort zone really so bad? There's a reason I do things regularly, meet the same people again and again and engage with the same things again and again. They have proven themselves. They do me good. They're fun. They give me strength. I feel comfortable doing them. 

Isn't that exactly what all these clever tips for leaving the comfort zone are about? Feeling comfortable in the end? Expanding the comfort zone? Creating more space to feel comfortable? No longer perceiving an unpleasant situation as unpleasant, but letting it become part of your comfort bubble? Seen in this way, the comfort zone is the result of previous searching and trying things out. The place you hope to find. The goal you're trying to reach. Doing your thing, finding your passion. In a way, you want to arrive exactly there – in the comfort zone.

Without the pressure to optimise myself, I'm now making myself comfortable in my little comfort zone. I'll expand it again tomorrow. Today I'm simply happy to have found it. After all, I was looking for it. No surprises await me there, I know my way around and know how to behave. I don't have to pretend here. I'm satisfied that I've found it and now I'm simply doing what I always do and I feel very comfortable doing it. 

Frederik Herrmann