Is Comfortable Such a Good Thing?

13 months ago, I uprooted my family and moved from Long Island to Atlanta, Georgia. I felt very comfortable on Long Island and for good reason — I was living close to where I grew up. Right near Mom and Dad, family and friends.

Moving brought anxiety and occasional worry but it’s also forced me to create, reinvent myself and discover my new surroundings. I still miss New York like crazy and think often about wanting to move back. But I’ve made a greater effort to get out and meet people and, think about the life I want to craft. I’ve become more vulnerable and interdependent, relying on meeting new people for ideas, friendship and professional advice. That’s a good thing.

I think about whether feeling comfortable is a good thing each time I look out my window and watch the sunset, wondering whether this is the place I’ll spend a future that’s longer than just “now.” I think about what it means to settle in, to establish myself in a community and build connections that further tie me to where I am. I have a futuristic mindset, so I think often about how the dots will connect in this place.

Being comfortable is a wonderful feeling in many ways. I have creature comforts like some of the food I eat, the time I choose to write and watching my beloved Yankees play baseball. But I’ve thought about things some more and I’ve realized, while I want routine and stability in my life, I’m simply not sure how much I want to feel “comfortable.”

Learning Expedition

Life is constantly evolving and new opportunities have come my way that have forced me to think about what matters most to me in my professional pursuits. I’ve had time to reflect on the professional career I’ve carved out, working for top management consulting firms and working as a project manager. Is this the route I want to continue on? Or is there something bolder, fresher and brighter that I’m meant to keep working toward?

What I do know is, I want to continue to meet more people, learn more about myself and develop a closer relationship with God. I’ve learned that I really have so much more to learn through reading, engaging in stimulating conversations, writing and searching for greater meaning in my life’s work.

I hope to travel more, see things in reality that I hope are as vivid as they’ve been in my dreams, and learn about new cultures. I want to continue to write, create and invent new work that has a purpose — work that provides value and brings joy to others.

Life is one big schooling, a great learning expedition that offers us an abundance of opportunity to see and do, to process and analyze and, to sometimes relax and admire how magnificent our the blessings in our lives are.

So much of what I thought I used to know or how I used to feel about things, has changed. I’ve matured in some ways, grown in others, yet I only want to keep growing and learning more. Comfortable means a lot of things, I suppose. I want to feel comfort in who I am as a man and what I want to become. I want to feel comfort in the support that I give and receive from my family and loved ones.

I just don’t ever want to feel comfortable getting complacent or content with living the status quo. I hunger for more and there are certainly drawbacks to a feeling of perpetual motion, yet I continue to feel that I’m right in the midst of the greatest creative period in my life. I want to keep it going, keep grinding and stay diligent and focused on my dreams.

I spent a good deal of time in my 20s feeling comfortable. And honestly, I don’t regret it. I know that times change, our mindset changes and we suddenly begin to, “get it.” Once we do, we don’t want to stop.

A great musician friend of mine has been grinding on becoming a known-quantity — a name brand — for 10 years now. He’s a wonderful guy, a truly unique individual who I admire because he’s crafted the life that he wants for himself. He is a professional because he gets paid to play music and make music for others. He’s living the dream and yet each day, he strives to be greater and to reach all of his goals.

For 10 years, he has kept going and shows no signs of stopping. That speaks to me and makes my soul feel good. Because I believe that’s the life for me. I’ve found that writing moves me and makes me happy, makes me want to keep pouring myself out and finding my way, just like my friend.

Putting Things in Perspective

I do like to stop on occasion and put things in perspective, I think we all need that for balance and to make sense of our direction.. There are times for rest and relaxation- times to reset and unwind. I urge everyone to decompress, recharge and rest your mind either through meditation, prayer, lounging or taking a nap.

But I’m always cognizant of letting this become more than a temporary getaway from “the grind.” You see, “the grind” for me isn’t about elbowing someone out of my way to get the “6” train downtown. It’s not concerned with keeping up with “the competition” in an effort to make more money or make VP.

The grind is all about maximizing my energy, focus and output to a finished product that rhymes and harmonizes with what I feel destined to create. Acceptance is a beautiful thing. Love is the greatest. The most curious and personally fulfilling, is how we manifest our passion in order to conceive and generate our greatest work.

There are times in life to feel comfortable, times to relax and learn. I’ve sure had plenty of those. I’ve learned that timing is different for every one of us. Through my moves and new pursuits, I’ve learned that comfort is great in small doses at this stage for me. Rest, recuperate, recharge and move forward. I’ve got work to do.

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