Author : Irakli Laitadze
Stress is caused by being here
but wanting to be there.
Eckhart Tolle
Today I am continuing the theme I started in my previous blog on the illusions of modernity. The previous blog was about success and its illusory nature. That success is ultimately a big lie. Let me briefly remind you of the excerpt from the aforementioned blog, ‘Whenever it is said, “successful person”, the implication is that there are others who are failures. Social Darwinism is unacceptable to me. So, I don’t think it’s right to divide people in such a way. Very often the label is heavy for the “unsuccessful” and intoxicating for the “successful”. Success tailored to oneself and one’s own size is grotesque. At a fundamental level we are all equal. What I have told you is just my opinion. Als ich kan.’
In this blog, I will also try to substantiate that stepping out of the comfort zone is also illusory.
What is a comfort zone? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘The comfort zone is the level at which one functions with ease and familiarity.’
Western business circles—and not only business circles—are flooded with calls: ‘Step out of your comfort zone’, ‘Success starts outside your comfort zone’, ‘You will only grow outside your comfort zone’, and so on. The same trend is quite noticeable in Georgia.
For me, the call to get out of the comfort zone and climb from there to the heights of dreams (with a cascade of selfies to accompany the process) is based on fundamentally flawed assumptions. Namely, people by default have various levels of ambition, different interests, and unique ways of setting and achieving goals. In this case, there is no right or wrong. Someone likes the colour green, and someone likes the colour blue, which one is wrong? Neither.
The same is true for the way goals are set and achieved. An adult decides for oneself what they want and how they want to achieve it. Accordingly, in my opinion, there is no need to listen to superficial advice from self-appointed educators, so-called successful people and mentors, and admire their lives. It is not worth spending a minute on that. Besides, very often such mentors need to cope with their own inferiority complexes, and, also, very often they show/tell the viewer/listener a cosmetically embellished facade, quite far from the reality of their affairs and life.
There are probably mostly two cases when people step out of their comfort zone, and in fact, even that’s not true.
Let’s break it down.
The first option is when there is nothing to lose, and the second option is when being out of one’s comfort zone can be enjoyable—what feels like a challenge to one person might be a thrill to another. It turns out that neither the first nor the second option mentioned above is a real way out of the comfort zone—one is forced to do so because he has nothing to lose, and for the other it is a pleasant activity. And yet, both cases are presented to the viewer/listener as some kind of courageous or heroic act. The problem is that what we’re being shown isn’t real risk or courage. On stage, there are no true daredevils or heroes—only caricatures pretending to be.
Do we truly want to understand and discover something new? Then—back to the future! The ancient Greek maxim γνῶθι σεαυτόν (know thyself) still holds. Before we criticize or try to change others, perhaps we should first turn inward and work on ourselves. That is the real path, the true exit from the comfort zone. Because searching for, discovering, and confronting our own darker sides is difficult—and deeply uncomfortable. But if we manage to dissect our own soul (psyche, mind, thoughts—call it what you will) thoroughly and honestly, then we might come to understand nearly all of humanity—their desires, their fears, and their passions.
From experience, I can say the following: no professional achievement or physical journey compares to the inner expedition into the self.
In conclusion, let us remember that Immanuel Kant never left his hometown of Königsberg during his 79 years of life and was not particularly concerned about leaving his comfort zone. This did not prevent him from becoming one of the world’s greatest thinkers. Kant is one of those giants on whose shoulders humanity stands, and to realise the magnitude of his thinking one phrase is enough: ‘Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht [...], Der bestirnte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir.’ “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, [...] the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me”.
