When we are young, so much is uncomfortable for us. Sleeping in a dark room alone, having to leave our parents to go to school for the first time, riding the school bus, etc. These things, which begin as uncomfortable eventually evolve into things we grow comfortable doing. You learn that it's not so awful to leave your mommy to go to camp for a week. You actually end up having fun.
As you progress through life, this is a never ending cycle. Graduating from high school and leaving home to go to college is uncomfortable. Facing your first job interview alone is uncomfortable. Maybe these situations never become completely comfortable, but they do get easier to handle right?
A lot of us try so hard to put and end to this cycle though. And so we see the typical American. Finishes college. Finds a good paying job. Gets married and settles. That is the way of life for them. No more uncomfortable situations. No more having to depend on anyone but themselves for help. Is this really what we want?
I would have to say that in those moments in my life of feeling really stretched out of my comfort zone is when I've learned the most. When I left to live in Africa for a year, away from my family and anyone I knew, it was the most uncomfortable feeling I had ever faced. But you know what? I learned that God was with me and I developed a love for Africa and the people there that I could never begin to explain. I even began to grow comfortable there.
When I left Jacksonville Beach a year ago to begin a solo run across the United States for clean water projects, I would have to say I was rather uncomfortable. To the point of tears uncomfortable. Not knowing where your going to rest your head at night, what your going to eat, and if anyone is even going to help you. Yeah, UNCOMFORTABLE. But a strange thing happened. After 163 days of travel from home to home, I would say at some point I did become comfortable.
What am I trying to say with all of this?
I NEVER WANT TO BE COMFORTABLE!
The only way to expand your comfort box is to be uncomfortable first. This is where we grow the most.
Leaving in July on the World Race is going to be very uncomfortable. Living out of a backpack for eleven months with people I've never met before. Having to adapt to different cultures and hearing different languages spoken 24/7. I'm so ready to be grown beyond anything I can imagine though. May my comfort box never stop expanding.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain
