Often times you might find yourself sitting in traffic on the highway stopped, just stopped, on the road that should be flowing steadily at 60+ mph. The stop-and-go process ensues. A few miles into it, the brake & gas foot/ankle exercise, you come upon what it might be. Usually, it’s the aftermath of a fender bender that has moved to the side of the road or a trooper with lights flashing giving a driver a “safety citation” to redeem in court at a future time. After that, things open up and traffic flows as usual. For me, as I mash down on the gas pedal and let all eight cylinders light up, and let the Challenger run free for a bit, I wonder why the hell people have to slow down and “rubberneck” the scene when in fact there is nothing left to see. A few events are happening in some linear order that created this mess in the first place. The incident occurred in the travel lanes. The time required to move safely over to the side of the road begins the process of slowing down the traffic, quickly, I might add. Then, there are the morons, Morons with a capital M, that have to slow down, even more, to get a better look as they pass the scene. Just about everyone reacts to the initial event in the same manner, just at different times. They step on the brake. The jockeying for lane position happens later in the jam. There happens to be physics behind traffic jams and if you’re interested in the science of traffic jams you can have a look at this study done. It’s quite detailed and extensive. I’ll leave it to your own devices to follow the link at your leisure.
Traffic jams have memory and are elastic and so does your response to them. What that means is that it takes some time to get back to the norm, equilibrium if you will.
The comfort zone is usually a happy lane where the walls of change are high and there are very few entrances and exits. One just motors down the lane, sometimes ignoring the signs and the exits on the way to one’s destination, almost as if on autopilot. Having a disruption while in your comfort zone is nearly identical to the response to the traffic jam that was just described. There’s an event, an immediate reaction to the event, and a slow response to deciding what to do about it. Think about that while I shift the scene for a moment.
My spouse has asked me several times what the theme of this blog is all about. I really thought that my tagline, my About page, my brand, and the topics that I’ve covered thus far defined the theme clearly. I was mistaken. I read something a long time ago that stated if you cannot write your idea to fit on the back of a business card then you don’t have a clear idea. Well, Dear, the theme is all about creating and accepting change and how to enjoy and anticipate the move in and out of the comfort zone to achieve Escape Velocity. This blog is the portal to shave 15-20 years off of the process for anyone who wants to push their self-imposed limits. “So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains. And we never even know we have the key.”
What I learned after blogging 33 articles is that the audience responds to content that entertains. It is easier and more enjoyable than content that requires thought, planning, and action. I create tools, and best practices and shine the light on blind spots. I am not qualified to be in the entertainment business.
If Warren Buffet whispered to a group of people the secret to financial success and laid out the plan, only a few people would follow it. Moving out of the comfort zone takes too much effort, hard work, focus, and changing direction. To do anything about it requires an external event to get your attention and apply the brakes. To do anything about it usually requires the consideration of loss aversion. Now take the time to look back on when you were forced out of your comfort zone. 80% of the time it was because you were reacting to something external that you missed the early warning signs on, just like brake lights and lots of them. Loss aversion was the first response. It’s safe to say that 20% of the changing times were due to a gain or a proactive move and the first steps to the comfort zone.
This week’s Bottom Line.
Now think of a few times you moved out of your comfort zone on your own accord. Much more pleasant, controlled and thought out, proactive and in control. Think back to what those conditions were, how you felt, where you were, and the people you surrounded yourself with. It was your very own Zone and it’s sometimes hard to recognize this zone until one leaves it. Leaving the comfort zone provides an opportunity for growth. Growth requires a temporary surrender of security. If you recall, this was in part, covered in a previous post.
Here’s a simple checklist that can take a waypoint of one of your comfort zones. Pick one, Health, physical fitness, job, savings rate, relationships, etc.
- Evaluate
- Decide
- Research Options
- Plan
- Execute
- Measure
- Tweak & Adjust
- Repeat over and over
There are plenty of hyperlinks in this post to help guide you along.
If you require some entertainment and motivation, have a read through the post below. Here’s a person that was working on his plan while hanging out with friends, who were in their comfort zones. Great story from another blogger I follow. Check out his other posts too.
http://debtfiles.com/the-wealthy-stealthy-teenager/
