The Comfort Zone: Create a Life You Really Love with Less Stress and More Flow

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So this book will bust some long-standing myths around what it takes to succeed, starting with the idea that you can’t grow or succeed without suffering for it. It will take an honest look at the costs of living outside your comfort zone for too long, and how you can avoid it by nurturing your intuition and making comfort a priority. Then it offers some practical advice to help you chart a new course toward the life you dream of – without ever leaving your comfort zone.

Apparently, you cannot push yourself to the limit and live in a state of well-being simultaneously. I would have liked a little more guidance on cultivating a relationship with your authentic self - for that reason, it gets 4/5. For many, the answer might have been something like, You’re just not trying hard enough, or If you want to get better at anything, you have to work hard. Or perhaps it was the ever-encouraging Nothing comes easy. But this zone is really just burnout. It is a place where living itself has become a chore, and even getting out of bed is too much. This is where the body and mind retreat when the stress of survival mode becomes unbearable. But it, too, is unsustainable, because life in this zone has no joy, no peace, and no growth. It’s neither living nor surviving, just … existing.Can you remember how uplifted you felt? The excitement of discovery, or the happiness that flooded your system? It might have felt natural at that moment to imagine yourself a great artist, a world-class athlete, a great novelist, or famous musician. Those feelings of confidence and passion were the driving force in that moment, and you just flowed with them. When you’re not in a place where you feel fulfilled, authentic, and connected to the things that truly matter to you, then you’re living in either the survival zone or the complacent zone.

This introduction made me read this book🎢 It goes like, “You will never achieve success faster and with less effort than when you are in your Comfort Zone,” Kristen writes. “By living inside of my Comfort Zone, I’ve achieved more success than I thought was possible, and I’ve done it without feeling overworked or compromising who I am. Now it’s your turn.” 🙌 Try to remember a time early in your life when you discovered something that made you feel incredible. Perhaps it was learning to ride a bike, or the first time you applied finger paints to a canvas. Maybe it was the first time you sang a whole song by yourself, or read a book out loud.

In the complacent zone, everything comes crashing down and all effort ceases. This is the place where everything feels too difficult – where exhaustion isn’t just a bodily phenomenon, but seems to have a hold on mind and spirit, too. This is the place where all the fear and negative self-talk leaves you unable to care about anything. It may feel like a relief for a short time, as numbness sometimes feels like an improvement in the endless cycle of stress. By forsaking joy in pursuit of growth, you forget that growth should make you feel alive, and that when you reach your goals, you should feel energized, even exhilarated, not exhausted and burned out.” Remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Which one wins? That's right! The underdog tortoise. Why? Think of the tortoise's shell as its comfort zone. People who race, unprepared (physically, emotionally, etc.) into the unknown, find themselves lost and in trouble when the unpredictability of life hits them in the face. But when you bring your home with you, you can weather anything. Flip through any motivational or self-help book, and you’ll likely come across some version of this core message: You’ve got to push yourself beyond your comfort zone to accomplish anything worthwhile. The author heard these messages early in childhood, and embraced the idea that unless she pushed herself, lived on a growth edge, and leaned into her discomfort, she’d never achieve her goals.