If you’ve ever spent the day outside in the miserable cold, you know how amazing it feels to sit next to the warmth of a crackling fire. A good fire provides comfort that feels primal. The smell, the light, the heat. Amazing.
Our comfort zones feel like sitting next to those fires. They’re warm, familiar, and safe. Stepping out of them isn’t easy. Doing so usually creates strong feelings of uncertainty, doubt, and fear. But the soil of our comfort zones is not ideal for the seeds of our dreams to grow. If we intend to make the most of this one wild and precious life, we must make the decision to leave.
The decision to leave isn’t always simple. Our minds are cunning. The parts of us that seek to protect us from discomfort have well-developed self-sabotaging toolkits. One of the most effective: comfort fires. Comfort fires are the fires we light inside of our comfort zones. We don’t light them for warmth, but as a distraction. They show up in a myriad of different ways, each with an excuse.
Overcommitting to Busy Work – I can’t work on writing my book, I have so much to do.
Staying in a Toxic Relationship – This person is going through a lot and really needs me.
Compulsively Helping Others – I’m the one everyone comes to. I’m the one who knows how to do everything.
Comfort fires give us a permission slip to stay when we should be leaving. The problem is we don’t have unlimited time. And potential doesn’t die a quiet death. It kicks, claws, and thrashes. It wants to create, explore, and express.
Awareness is always the first step to conscious change. Here’s the question I would invite you to walk around your life with:
“What are the comfort fires I’m lighting to stay warm in my comfort zone?”
Once you see the fire for what it is, you can choose to stop feeding it. You’re able to take a step toward the life that’s calling you. The one that requires courage. The one that grows you. The one that frees you — because you deserve to live freed.
-Jordan
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