Change your comfort zone...expand your life.
There are days that I definitely feel that my “live dangerously” factor has seriously plummeted. Days when I’m scared that I’m fast becoming mired in the complacency of middle age. Days when it’s just easier to not do what I know needs doing (procrastination can sometimes be a good thing, but let’s face it… most times it’s not). Days when I question if I have the energy left to instigate the changes required in order to meet my three year plan.
I spent some time thinking about why I felt this way and it came down to this: Fear (and not the healthy kind). That’s it. Plain and simple. Do I like this answer? Not particularly. And the deeper question is, why does “live dangerously” foster fear and hesitation now, unlike before?
Sometimes change is hard and it’s just easier to keep on plodding along the way we are, where we are. Fear is the master of disguise – “Better the devil we know than the devil we don’t” – and it becomes such an insidious habit that we don’t notice (or we get really good at making a whole pile of excuses) until our dreams get sent to the back row in the theatre of life. We “settle”.
So I look at acknowledging this fear in my life as a good thing – because I’ve identified it and it no longer has any strength and influence when exposed in the light of day. The determination to live free of these fears drives me to say “YES” to new adventures like the one I’m starting in two weeks…moving 8 hours down the road (and as my Norwegian friend always tells me…it’s obvious I’m Canadian because I measure distance in hours, not kilometers) to take on a new project for the next twelve months. It creates a bit of initial chaos, but the possibilities are endless as to what this project will bring into my life.
As I’m still willing to shake things up (especially if it’s a martini, but I digress) and step outside my current comfort zone I would have to say that, for the moment at least, I’m safe from complacency 
Question of the Day: what holds you back and why?
