Comfort Makes Cowards Of Us All…

An article by Rahim Dawood    No Comments

We’re all too familiar with what we call our ‘comfort zones‘ – where we mentally condition ourselves to accept our self-imposed limitations (and those imposed by others) and confine our existence to a predictable, mundane, routine, and ‘easy‘ ride to nowhere in particular…

We foolishly convince ourselves that by doing so, we’re going to lead a ‘risk-free‘ and ‘steady‘ life – and ignorantly hold on to the false sense of security created by these self imposed mental boundaries – and further impose this ignorance and stupidity on our partners, children, peers, and all those with whom we share this planet…

Our organized businesses of religion and politics – well aware of this weakness – are quick to exploit it for their own greed and profits by feeding us with all the misinformation we need to reduce our presence on this planet to the meaningless, fear-driven, mundane routines that they are today – toiling endlessly for the profit of those manipulating and brainwashing us into believing that any endeavor (or even the thought thereof) outside our ‘comfort zones‘ would be detrimental to our well-being…

What we fail to realize is that the ‘comfort zone‘ that we so dearly protect is but a facade – a facade behind which we let our insecurities, fears, prejudices, and self-limiting attitudes thrive…

I’ve had the misfortune of knowing folks who continued doing what they did for decades, day in and day out, heads buried deep in the sand, plugging away in their self-imposed ruts, doing the same mundane, ritualistic, repetitive tasks – 10, 15, 20 years of their lives – drawing from (mostly perceived) past successes to justify the ‘safety‘ and ‘effectiveness‘ of their behavior – hence their case for not wanting to even think beyond the ‘status-quo‘…

A popular argument I hear about why we continue holding on to our comfort zones is because these comfort zones apparently evolve from our ‘experience‘ and ‘expertise‘ over time – thereby allowing us to do what we do ‘very well‘…

In my humble opinion though, there is absolutely nothing that our ‘experience‘ and ‘expertise‘ (or even the ‘comfort zone‘ that may evolve thereof) can do for us when dealing with the many different attitudes, personalities, situations, and challenges that we encounter every day…we may be able to draw from our experience and expertise to articulate responses to the stimuli we face – that may eventually lead to (mostly self-perceived) favorable outcomes – but the overall result of our interaction with the world has nothing to do with our ‘comfort‘ levels…nothing at all…in fact, if we dig deep into our history, we’ll see clearly that all those who we still remember today – those who have made a ‘difference‘ on this planet – a difference significant enough that we celebrate (or curse) their existence many decades after their passing – were all ordinary people, no different from us, who simply chose to step outside their ‘comfort zones‘…

When was the last time you saw a Mustang on the road and thought about the unionized assembly crew that clock in at 9AM and out at 5PM, Monday to Friday, taking their two regulated breaks and one hour lunch every single day – who, by their experience and expertise, put together this beautiful shiny toy for your pleasure?

Now how many have heard the name ‘Lee Iacocca‘ mentioned at least once in their lifetime???

Many know that Lee Iacocca, years before taking on the head-hauncho gig at Chrysler, was the dude who stepped out of the box and championed the creation of the Mustang in 1964 while serving at Ford – those who actually made his vision come true were the ones who – working within their comfort zones, and showing up to an organized and routine assembly line every single morning to put all their experience and expertise into the project – created the Mustang…yet, all credit for making the Mustang a reality within a short 18 months goes to Lee Iacocca and his chief engineer, Donald Frey – the dudes who lived their entire lives OUTSIDE their comfort zones…

There are many books out there about Lee Iacocca and his extraordinary life and achievements, so I won’t bother repeating all of that in this rant…

Donald Frey, an engineer by qualification, worked as an army officer (US Army, World War II), an assistant university professor while working towards his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering, Vice-President and Chief Engineer at Ford, President of General Cable, Chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell, Member of the Board of Directors at 20th Century Fox, and is respectfully recognized for, amongst many other distinctions, bringing about the first high-volume integrated manufacture of video cassettes for the movie industry, and for being instrumental in promoting the first successful CD-ROM based information system designed for the General Motors dealer service. His final years saw him serving as a Professor and doing research at Northwestern University and serving on the Board of Directors at Stonewater Control Systems…

How many engineers out there reading this rant have bothered thinking about an existence beyond their bi-weekly pay cheques in a boring, rote position they’ve held since they graduated from engineering school???

…enough said…

Every time we choose to stick to our ‘comfort zone‘, we not only eat away at our core and distance ourselves from our true potential, but we also eliminate options that we might otherwise have in life – while ‘fitting in‘ to the mold may seem like a safe bet, the harsh reality is that there is no such thing as a ‘safe bet‘ in life -  all we do by choosing to remain within our ‘comfort zones‘ is cut ourselves off from knowing what our true potential is – that comfort zone is where mediocrity lives – that comfort zone is where insecurities thrive – that comfort zone is where cowards hang out…

…comfort makes cowards of us all…

- RD