When you repeatedly find yourself in the same place, doing the same thing, going the same places and meeting the same people, you may assume and accept that life is all about that. Apparently, this is far from reality.
When we start accepting the status quo and when we become blinded to believe we cannot amount to something better than we already have, we slide into a comfort zone. We align behaviours to keep us in the comfort zone, behaviours which promise to keep us safe.
There is no problem when you keep a job you do not like, it pays up your bills and help you move along the murky waters of life, at least for the moment. This is your safety zone, safety zone because the not so good job can be a stepping stone. It is like a trampoline that can thrust you upward.
My interest in marketing has widely been influenced a lot by Seth, I love his approach on sharing ideas, his story telling skill is unmatched.
I am certain you may have read or if not heard from a person the need to move away from comfort zones and fully express the self and achieve possibilities for your life and your community. In his book, Icarius Deception, Seth introduces something else that he call safety zone. To differentiate, he says that the mountain climber knows when she is outside of her safety zone, feels uncomfortable about it, stops—, and lives to climb another day, phenomenal, is it? Most people might think that’s weaknesses – living to fight another day!
Remember the simile, as cunning as a fox? He explains how to catch a fox, as cunning as it is.
This is how you catch a fox.
- Build an eight-foot-long wooden fence.
- Lay out some bait and then go away for a week.
- The fox is too crafty to be caught in a simple trap, and he will smell you and avoid the fence for days. But eventually, he’ll come and eat the bait.
- At the end of the week, build a second length of fence at a right angle to the first. Leave more bait.
- The fox will avoid the fence again for a few days, then take the bait.
- At the end of the second week, build a third wall and a gate. Leave more bait.
- When you come back at the end of a month, the fox will be happily prancing in his safe enclosure, and all you will have to do is close the gate.
- The fox will be trapped.
What is the meaning in this analogy?
This analogy spiraled in my head and I tried making sense of it. I could not help myself to notice how so many of us are trapped into a snare like the fox, as cunning as it is, and possibly, we are not aware of it. The time the awareness hits us, it is too late.
Like the fox, the rewards make us ignore any guess of a trap and at the end we find ourselves trapped in a snare, a system. The next thing; we die or are banished; our goals never met, our passions subjected to darkness, our purposes never discovered. We end up living a life of mediocrity, what happens when individuals who would have changed a community find themselves in such a snare? The community definitely suffers.
But are we really boxed or fenced in such a way we cannot come out? No! Our society has socialized us to believe we are fenced, that there is nothing we can do. You see, unlike the fox, our fences are imaginary; we are kept there by fear of shame, risks we are exposed and the fear of our inability to clear bills.
But are we really boxed or fenced in such a way we cannot come out? No! Our society has socialized us to believe we are fenced.
Therefore, being able to know the difference between a comfort zone and safety zone matters. Seth notes that our entire life has been about coordinating our comfort zone and our safety zone. Learning when to push and when to back off, understanding how it feels when you are about to hit a danger zone. Like the fox, we have been trained to stay inside the fence, because inside the fence is where it is safe, food is available, but as baits —until it is too late.
Successful people align their comfort zone with the behaviour that keeps them safe
Is there a solution?
Seth points out and says that we do not have time to reevaluate the safety zone every time we make a decision, so over time; we begin to forget about the safety zone and merely pay attention to its twin sister, the comfort zone. We assume that what makes us comfortable also makes us safe. The fence holding us back is no longer there, but we still feel comfortable with the old boundaries.
You heard it, know your comfort zone as well as your safety zone; you just have to if you want to make your life more meaningful.
Get to understand your safety zone, remember what keeps you safe might move, and your comfort zone will cease to be comfortable, and it will expose you to harsh realities.
Find your wings and keep flying.
