Not-so-Comfort Zone
I like to think that we’ve all been there. Sooner or later we all live that moment in which we have this great thing in mind we want to achieve and yet we are stuck.
Suddenly we have an idea. Our mind is filled with possibilities, we start experiencing the outcome, what would happen in a scenario where our idea is already reality. We enjoy it. That’s the best part.
It is like walking in a park, we are inspired by all the colors, shapes and sounds. We breath in and we feel fine.
Then, suddenly, reality kicks in with a small demand. “How are you going to do it?” and now that beautiful park is on fire. Trees are burning, people are screaming in despair and animals are running in circles trying to escape the flames.
So we go back, we shake our head waking up from that beautiful dream and we pretend we never experienced that beauty. We are frightened, frightened by the idea of actually moving forward. We tell ourselves that we would’ve failed in order to justify our inertia.
Eventually, when we take a step back we all of a sudden feel fine. Comfortably thinking that the reason we are feeling fine is because the right choice was made.
Sadly not, we’re just back in our comfort zone.
I decided to write this blog after speaking to a very good friend of mine.
He is a smart man and he would easily be defined goodlooking by most.
And yet his self-esteem has always been a huge wall between him and the rest of the world.
He is his biggest detractor despite he has really no reason to do it. I’ve seen him wasting many opportunities just because he was afraid of failure. Something that I see happening very often these days.
So there I was, thinking about myself. Am I wrong in not worrying a lot about the chance of failing? Not worrying about “how would they react”?
Would that attitude of his benefit him more in the long run? Or is he the one who’s losing something in not taking any risks?
The more I thought about it, the more deep in my memories I was digging the easier it was to remember things that I thought I forgot.
It was stupid of me assuming that I’ve never experienced that very problem. In fact I could remember times in which I’ve been the one backing off and the more I remembered the more there was to remember. Until I started looking for a moment in which that thing changed. Then it hit me!
It was a distant memory, something that happened when I was fourteen and definitely not something that I would write in my biography. It is just a regular memory, but I remember having a sudden realization in that moment that changed everything for me. Which is:
The worst thing that can happen to you is to receive a “No”, the best thing that can happen is a new chain of unexplored opportunities!
On my next piece of writing I’ll focus on the circumstances that lead me to that beautiful realization and I’ll go further in details of what that means to me. For the time being I would like to go in dept on this aspect.
It is a lot like the blue and red pill from the Matrix trilogy. The main character was a random guy and one single decision in his life allowed him to become the one who would’ve saved the world later on.
I’m not saying that we will all become Neo at some point but what I do say is that there is more to lose in standing still than in moving.
Most of us live their life one problem at the time. Sometimes it is even our job. There are a lot of people whose job is literally to fix other people messes.
Take lawyers, customer care line and even cops. I could go on for a while but the whole point is: We are GREAT at problem solving.
So lets stop holding ourselves back from taking risky decisions. In the worst case we’ll have another problem to deal with, so what? It’s not going to be the last one for you and there are good chances that if we’re not speaking about major things everything can be solved within an hour.
On the other hand, if you succeed, you have won and you can get your reward, congratulations!
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
-Goethe
Borrowing those words I close this chapter for today. Thank you for your attention! Here you can find my Instagram (@giuseppe_festoni) and Twitter (Giuseppe Festoni Perillo).
Have a nice day!
