Moving out of your comfort zone

dylan nolte

Recognizing that the safety zone has moved might be the prompt your need to reevaluate your comfort zone

The digital revolution is here to stay. Computers are getting smarter and smarter. Boring, repetitive and safe jobs associated with the nine-to-five grind are disappearing. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that you’ll have to adapt to the new age and one way we can do it is by moving out of our comfort zone.

The future will be increasingly automated. Machines will take over more and more manual and administrative tasks. So, what’s left for us? Well, we’ll need to do just what computers can’t do (yet), become a lot more creative.

But we’ve been far too slow in recognizing this. Blame it on the Icarus Deception. We live in a society in which we settle for too little. We’ve taken the Greek myth of Icarus to heart, but we’ve also misunderstood it.

Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a craftsman thrown into prison together with his son for disobeying Minos, the king of Crete. Daedalus had a plan, however, and started building wings for himself and Icarus to help them escape. He told his son not to fly too high so that the sun would not melt the wax holding his wings together. Icarus didn’t listen and soared towards the sun. Sure enough, his wings melted, and he plunged to his death.

Our culture has fixated on this part of the myth. “Don’t fly too high!” is the lesson we’ve learned. But that’s not all there is to it. Daedalus also warned Icarus not to fly too low, as the spray from the sea would saturate his wings and drag him down.

Aiming for the stars can be risky, but so is being overly cautious.

It’s worth remembering this second piece of advice. If we want to thrive, we need to get out of our comfort zone, meaning we mustn’t fly too low.

After all, the world has changed. In the past, it was possible to land a safe and well-paid office job with rewards. That model came to an end in the 1990s. Today, steady employment is guaranteed only to creatives who aren’t afraid to take risks and initiate new ventures. Just think of internet start-ups like Facebook, launched at a time when the success of this kind of business model was far from certain. We need to learn from that.

The new comfort zone is all about creativity and connecting with others

Conclusion

Remember that moving out of your comfort zone isn’t always going to be fun. There will be moments of struggle, challenge and even pain. But don’t despair.

Most importantly, stop telling yourself you can’t do something! That’s the kind of attitude you need to take on. Who cares if you’re not perfect yet – the only thing that’ll make you better is pursuing your passion relentlessly. Once you start doing that, you’ll be set to thrive in today’s changing world!