MY COMFORT ZONE,THE DEATH OF ME

I really do love being indoors doing all sort of indoor stuff. The most influential 'stuff' is my radio, my television set and a bunch of DVDs to watch. If I am not listening to my radio or watching a movie/football, am probably on the net wasting time and dreaming of other people's lives.Other times i may be on the net doing useful things like research and job chasing, but i got to admit that is rare. If it were six years ago, i would be flipping through pages of some novel only taking a well deserved break to visit the washroom,grab a snack or help out a neighbor at my door. Today, I can hardly get through a page without finding an excuse to label the book uninteresting, thus going back to my disastrous relationship with my television. Six years ago, I wouldn't have broken a sweat if some person told me to write an article about anything. As I sit here writing this, I have a headache and I am wondering if I still got it in me.

It is during such indoor moments that I actually got to make sense of my life in a more clear perspective. I'm not saying that I was not aware of the direction my life was taking, I pretty much had it; work my way up the career ladder honestly, more education to help me get there, at some point settle down and get a bunch of kids and continue my monotonous well planned life. Its comfortable not to rock your boat trust me, you would rather let it sail with the current. When the waters are calm, we take a 'well deserved rest' by letting the boat stagnate at that particular spot. That was my position and most people as well, but we all know its calm before a storm. Pretty soon, when the storm hits, the boat gets rocked left, right, center and finally thrown off balance. It would have to be a pretty lucky boat to get to the shore intact if it even makes it to the shore.

"You got to get yourself together, you got caught in the moment, and you can't get out of it, don't say that later will be better...." That's one of the songs of the Rock group 'U2'. Thanks to my radio I sing along to it every time its played but its meaning never really dawned on me until now. I really need to listen more and digest the contents even further.

Among the many mistakes I have made, being satisfied with my current position in life is the most damaging.
By this age I have acquired, I ought to have been far, well at least that's what I dreamed of when I was younger. I probably am putting much pressure on me to succeed like so and so but that is not my ultimate goal. My goal is to be out there doing something I love just for fun and for helping others, in as much as it might help me in the process. Whatever I prosper at first (I have many goals that need to be achieved), I would love for it to be an example to others who might be in my current shoes, if they don't help me first.

Most of us humans need a degree of catastrophe to serve as a wake up call in whatever sector we have been sleep walking in. Depending with the individual, the magnitude of that particular catastrophe pushes them to whichever direction they ought to have been on, but due to the "famous" comfort zone, never quite got there. The catastrophes may vary in form, shape and even in number! Surprised huh? Well it has taken me numerous catastrophes to get here, to write my first blog.

My first wake up call probably happened years ago - I am using the probability factor here because I am sure I cannot quite remember when exactly it was and how it presented itself. That's because I may have not been keen at all, I was very comfortable with my life then and thus the warning signs did not bother me. If they did at all bother me, then I must shrugged off the whole idea of them making an impact in my near future. The bottom line is that we all hear the wake up calls at some point in our life if not almost always from different sources but it is really hard to actually respond positively and actively to them.

At this moment, someone may be reading my blog and saying to themselves, "Soo yesterday, who doesn't know about this..." Then they will think they are not in that cadre of 'comfortable zones'. Well, some may not actually be in that category. I too have been there, and probably might relapse if I don't keep my focus.

Comfort zones are not a once-in-a-lifetime thing, neither are your goals. As long as you have goals or dreams no matter how big or small, there is a chance of you not getting there on targeted time or not getting there at all! Whatever encourages us to have the latter, that is a comfort zone. It may be argued that the money factor comes in, it definitely does affect your journey to your goals, but so does your determination to get there. Just because the money factor is a big aspect does not give you the right to use that as an excuse not to try and look for other ways to meet your goals. We all have the white and grey matter beneath our skulls and they tend to do magic when rightfully stimulated. That is a weapon we were all given by God and we need to make use of it.

I have often watched very successful people continue to work hard, 'kill' their bodies and rack their brains for their next goal to be achieved. When I was younger than I am now, I often imagined I would make all the money in the world, then sit back, relax and not have to work. If I was still that young, I would find them strange for working while they had it all. I am not saying that people should not enjoy the fruits of their labor, I am saying too much of anything is 'poisonous'. Imagine a rich person sitting back to enjoy his/her wealth, does he/she not need to supervise the management at some point? Need they not make plans on how they will need their wealth managed should they leave this world? Probably how much they will leave their children, how much goes to charity and so forth? In a way, that is a goal. If the goal is not fulfilled, repercussions will be there, like their kids killing each other for the money or relatives trying to take it away.

So the next time I am tempted to get 'comfortable' while I should be working towards a certain goal, I will remind myself that I am an addict and we all know the tale of addiction; you either recover completely, you keep relapsing but the will to stop keeps you in Rehab for most of your life or alternatively, you give up and the addiction kills you. Oh wait! There's a fourth option, stay addicted with no Rehab desire and dig your own grave. We have the ability to choose, and choose wisely at that.