Comfort Vs. Dreams

Everyone has this thing they call the comfort zone. It’s safe and sometimes warm there. We don’t have to worry about unfamiliar things when we are in our comfort zone. It’s routine for us.

But that also means we aren’t growing. If you are in your comfort zone that means the thing you are doing is so normal to you that nothing about it bothers you. So often as people we try to make life as easy and comfortable as possible. Now don’t get me wrong comfort is a good thing. There you need things in your life that are comfortable too. A life where you are never comfortable would be absolutely chaotic, in a bad way. But the idea of settling because you don’t want to leave your comfort zone and take a risk is almost as harmful. Only it’s hard to see the harm in the moment.

The idea that because you are afraid you’ll fail, so you won’t even take the shot, to begin with, seems counterproductive. Everyone knows the saying “You miss 100% of the shot you don’t take” and it true.

If you don’t swing the bat you’ll never hit the baseball. Wouldn’t life be easier if we were all just completely comfortable with everything that has to do with our dreams? Like for example if actors never got stage fright. They just did their best and never worried. Yeah, it would be easier but acting would probably become pretty boring to them though. Look life isn’t that easy we’ve all figured that out. In life sometimes we have to make a choice. Do you chose comfort or do you chose your dream? Which one is more important to you? When I was about 14 my mom made me join speech and debate. As in I had a meltdown the first day because I didn’t want to go. The only reason I went into the classroom that day was because I didn’t want to be grounded. I spent a year fighting her about it and fighting doing the work needed in order to do well. Until my mom sat me down and asked me a question. I was mad that day, I didn’t want to debate, I honestly hated it. In the misted of another meltdown, I had said, something along the lines of “Why do I have to do this? I hate it and I’m never going to use this stuff in my life so why do I have to learn it?” She sat me down on my bed and said: “Tori, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I responded with; “I want to be a Christian Singer.” Then she asked a question that really hit home for me. She asked “You don’t think people are going to question your faith? Why you do what you do? You don’t think at some point in your life someone is going to challenge who you are in God?” I don’t remember my exact response but I believe it was something along the lines of “Oh I never thought of it that way.” My mom explained if I was going to be a Christian Singer I was going to have to learn how to respectfully debate with someone. That’s when I had a choice, to choose comfort or my dream. Comfort was to say; “Forget it I don’t want to work I just want to play video games or watch internet videos. Who needs debate anyway, I’ll figure it out.” Or to put myself into a situation that I wasn’t exactly happy about and still didn’t feel anywhere near comfortable with but would help me get one step closer to my dream. I chose the second one. I stopped fighting it. Now I actually really enjoy debate and I am super thankful for all the things it has taught me. My comfort zone was not talking and debating in front of people, it still isn’t, but I love the knowledge I get from every debate and every minute I spend researching. Comfort is never worth your dream. A point from the speaker for our camp this week was “The pain of staying where we are is not worth the pain of failing to meet our God-given potential.” I found that really meaningful. Don’t sacrifice your dream because you don’t want to feel uncomfortable. Life has periods and stages. The time or stage of being uncomfortable won’t last forever. Take the step because life is too short for you to miss out on your dreams. Period.