Member-only story
How Comfort Sabotages your Life
Your comfort zone is the worst possible place you can be.
The human brain is wired to seek comfort and avoid stressful, intimidating and disagreeable situations. Our brains release stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to encourage us to flee from anxiety-arousing circumstances.
This was once, and still can be, a mechanism for survival. If our ancestors came face to face with an angry bear, it probably served them better to run like hell, than to try and negotiate the situation in a different way.
Hundreds of years in the past, the comfort zone was a good thing, it kept us alive, helped us to avoid menacing situations. These days, however, the brain’s desire to avoid discomfort is exactly the thing which prevents you from living.
When I was younger, I had pretty terrible social anxiety.
I would do everything I could to avoid or escape an uncomfortable social situation. Throughout high school, I would be petrified of talking to girls, being asked a question in class, or giving a dreaded presentation to the class. One time, I was so determined to avoid speaking in front of the class, that I screamed into a pillow for around an hour the night before, so I could lose my voice, and avoid the presentation.
I was a wreck for most of my teenage years, precisely because I was trying to seek comfort and distance myself from discomfort.
Our biology works against us in the modern world
Due to the extremely rapid evolution and development of our societies, our essential human biology is playing catch up. The challenges we face these days are of a whole different breed to those we might have encountered several hundred years ago.
Nowadays, our logical brains strive for success, adventure, and purpose, while our biology is simply looking to keep us alive.
If you want to have a fulfilling life in this day and age, you need to seek discomfort, head into the unknown, start something before you are ready.
“Real change is…
