Stuck In A Comfort Bubble

So often in life we find ourselves living in a comfortable bubble that we’ve created for ourselves. We sit wrapped in our artificial security blankets living cautiously and conservatively, assuring that we are rarely forced to step far outside of our comfort zones. This can sometimes be a nice luxury affording us a sense of security and comfort, like a good job or a nice house, but often this is the very thing that holds us back from achieving what we really aspire to do with our lives.

Maybe you’ve always wanted to go travelling and see the World. Maybe you’ve been dreaming of attempting this venture for years. So the question is, why haven’t you done it???

Well if you don’t already know, I’ll tell you why… because you’re comfortable and content with the life you’ve created and giving it up scares the crap out of you.

Perhaps you’ve got an okay job, a nice girlfriend/boyfriend, and maybe even a fun social circle to keep you busy. All of this creates a nice, familiar and easy lifestyle that many people would be happy maintaining for long periods of their life. But…it’s exactly this comfort zone that breads unadventurous, unromantic and unfulfilling lives, and it’s this exact reason you continue to procrastinate away your dreams.

I know this from first hand experience; before starting my year of challenges with Scale My Life, I lived by all accounts, a regular, ‘busy,’ boring life. I went to work Monday through Friday, I went drinking with my friends Saturday and Sunday and I filled up my schedule with fun but mostly unfulfilling activities. I was drifting through my life, and my goals, the things I had been yearning to do for years, always seemed to take a back seat to the higher priority of my day to day. I was trapped in my comfort bubble and even though I knew that to move forward I needed to get out, I felt like I was basically stuck.

This is why I really love the swim challenge that I’ve currently embarked on.

Committing To Be A Little Uncomfortable

This challenge represents so much more than a physical goal. By committing myself to swim a crazy 2000 meters (2kms) in a single set I am forcing myself to do something that both terrifies me and pushes me out of my bubble and that really gets me excited.

As I mentioned previously swimming in open water is something that scares me. Not being able to see or touch bottom and knowing that if I don’t train hard enough that I could actually drowned attempting this goal makes me very uncomfortable. And when I first started this month that was all I could think about. Getting in the pool and choking down chlorine as I struggled to get across half a length, I wondered to myself if I had finally gotten myself in over my head (literally).

Swimming, surprisingly is actually an incredibly challenging sport. It’s the only athletic activity I’ve tried where strength has very little to do with how good of a swimmer you are. You could be an Olympic body builder but if you don’t know how to swim properly an 8 year old could do laps around you with ease. Swimming is all about maximising your technique and minimising your resistance; the more you can cut through the water and reduce your drag the faster and longer you can go. Unfortunately swimming also happens to be one of the most difficult sports I’ve ever attempted as there’s so many things you need to learn in order to do it well. Kicking, breathing, rotating, gliding, etc, etc. It’s basically like rubbing your stomach and patting your head, while chewing bubblegum and running, all while under water…(seriously it’s crazy hard).

But by just keeping my head down and focusing only on what I could concur on each day I was in the pool I slowly started to gain confidence. Maybe it was breathing, maybe it was gliding, but everyday I tried to improve my comfort and ability just a little bit more. Someday’s have been tougher than others but by just committing to being in the pool as often as possible and shifting my focus from the big scary swim that is ever looming closer I’ve instead focused on enjoying and learning everyday, and I’ve actually started to improve. First it was 25m’s, then 50m’s, then 100m’s and finally this last Saturday I managed 500m’s of open lake swimming.

Breaking Down Your Comfort Zone

This to me is such a revelation. So often in my life I have been too afraid to take the next step toward a big scary goal. I would focus so much on the end result that it would overwhelm me with fear and self doubt. “There’s no way I can do that…it’s way too big and scary…” And then I would procrastinate as much as I could in order to avoid having to face my fears.

Now tackling this swim challenge I feel like anything is possible. Even though I’m still totally afraid of my final goal, I feel so confident that if I just keep my head down and keep training one day at a time that there’s no way that when the Across The Lake Swim comes in July that I won’t crush it.

This video of the legendary Idris Elba and his prescription for concurring fear sums up how motivated I feel taking this next step in my life. I hope it inspires you the way it inspired me.

If I’ve learned one thing over the last almost 6 months of life challenges it’s that life is FAR more interesting, exciting and fulfilling when you’re doing something that makes you at least a little bit uncomfortable. It’s the uncomfortable environment that pushes you to grow and challenges you to be better; it’s here that true success and fulfilment lives. I think that this is one of life’s big challenges, if you can learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable than you’ll be truly prepared to handle whatever life decides to throw your way.