Comfortably Broken To Painfully Growing
And the beautifully messy journey
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I find myself subconsciously embodying this statement when I am nervous, scared of trying something for the first time. Whether a new job, a new habit, or even a new approach. It is comforting to know that my current processes have got me where I am today.
To be sure, I am a more evolved individual than what I was, say 5 years ago? I have grown, right?
Notice the use of the words comfort and growth (well, their derivatives) in the last few sentences. If I have grown for over five years, it is because I have changed something in my life. I got out of my comfort zone.
As a species, we humans are wired to be curious. In the wild, pre-historic times, this trait helped us survive. From learning which berries were edible to the taming of fire to inventing the wheel — all are results of our curious minds. In modern-day, we rely as much on this trait, if not more.
Take this pandemic, for instance. We could have let the virus do its thing and moved on. The same way we moved on after the terrible Black Death in 14th century Europe. Instead, we put our curious minds to figure out a way to contain the spread while the chemists and virologists figured a cure.
Let’s bring this thought closer home. To you. Ask yourself:
Am I more knowledgeable today than I was 5 years ago? (This is knowledge from a holistic perspective, not just academic). Becoming more self-aware, understanding what makes you tick, and what triggers you.
When was the last time that I figured out a workaround to a problem? The problem could be as straightforward as figuring out an alternative to your favorite bread that is suddenly no longer available (no offense to the gluten-intolerant).
If you answered yes to the first question and your answer to the second was anywhere between earlier today to a few weeks ago, you’re in the majority.
There is more to learn. There is scope to improve. Always. We can only strive to be perfect. Never achieve it. Perfection is as abstract and subjective a concept as beauty.
Improve your job satisfaction, your relationships, your standard of living, your degree of self-awareness. Pick an area from your life to work on and nurture.
A word of caution, though — DO NOT GO COLD TURKEY. Unless you want to experience the feeling of falling down a bottomless pit. The problem with going cold turkey is that you change every aspect of your life simultaneously. It will not work. You need an anchor, a harness, to keep you steady and stable as you bring changes into your life. Without the steadying factor, you will be swept away almost to the point of no return.
For instance, when working on your personal relationships, anchor your professional life.
Change is messy. If it were not so, you would be doing it every day as part of your routine. Imagine that — routinely changing. Oh, the irony!
Holding your professional life steady will help you deal with the messy changes in your personal life. The same holds true when you go the other way. Anchor your personal life as you wring the changes into your professional life.
Remember, growth is not a one-time activity. Had it been so, we would still be moving on wheels of rock, racing Fred Flintstone to work. Growth is constant. Instead of letting life happen to you, make life evolve according to your will and desire. Proactively managing your life is like cleaning your house. It needs constant work and supervision.
So yes, it does hold true that there is no need to fix something if it isn’t broken. But to move ahead and grow in life, you need to continuously keep challenging yourself, be curious, and be willing to create something beautiful out of a mess.
“Nothing ever grows in the comfort zone.”
