June 2019
There’s no shortage of inspirational quotes talking about how beneficial living outside of your comfort zone is. I could flood this post with “life begins where your comfort zone ends” and other pseudo-philosophical phrases, but honestly, who still pays attention to those?
Let’s be real, has anything worthy of mention ever really been done inside someone’s comfort zone? Every time you’ve accepted a new job, or even started a new project, you’re stepping outside of your circle of comfort. This might be the tiniest step, or it can be a bounding leap. The idea of staying within your comfort zone is simply a restrictive one, and we deserve so much more than boundaries for our goals.
The thing is, we graduate or professional students have already left this comfort zone far behind the moment we started our respective programs. We’re constantly pushed to submit work or do research that goes beyond expectations, and I bet it’s paid off pretty much every time. We’re only graduate students (hopefully) for a short time, so why not just keep pushing for our goals?
A new opportunity and challenges should feel uncomfortable at first, but isn’t that what makes them exciting? Blame the adrenaline junkie in me, but getting rid of the goal to get back into my comfort zone was the best and most exciting decision I could have made for myself. If I were worried about comfort zones, I wouldn’t be in my graduate program and I definitely wouldn’t have found this career that I love. Life shouldn’t be lived with the idea of comfort zones anchoring us down.
Getting rid of your comfort zone doesn’t mean accepting every new project or never saying “no” again. It simply means not denying the opportunity to achieve more because it feels uncomfortable, or because you don’t feel ready. In the end, we’re never going to actually feel ready for the next step. Life is about rolling with what comes to you, so instead of trying to make an opportunity fit in the little circle that’s your comfort zone, it’s the time to live your life with that circle five steps behind you. Stick that on your inspirational quote board.
---Corley-Ann Parker
Corley-Ann Parker is a Masters student in the College of Veterinary Medicine
Let’s be real, has anything worthy of mention ever really been done inside someone’s comfort zone? Every time you’ve accepted a new job, or even started a new project, you’re stepping outside of your circle of comfort. This might be the tiniest step, or it can be a bounding leap. The idea of staying within your comfort zone is simply a restrictive one, and we deserve so much more than boundaries for our goals.
The thing is, we graduate or professional students have already left this comfort zone far behind the moment we started our respective programs. We’re constantly pushed to submit work or do research that goes beyond expectations, and I bet it’s paid off pretty much every time. We’re only graduate students (hopefully) for a short time, so why not just keep pushing for our goals?
A new opportunity and challenges should feel uncomfortable at first, but isn’t that what makes them exciting? Blame the adrenaline junkie in me, but getting rid of the goal to get back into my comfort zone was the best and most exciting decision I could have made for myself. If I were worried about comfort zones, I wouldn’t be in my graduate program and I definitely wouldn’t have found this career that I love. Life shouldn’t be lived with the idea of comfort zones anchoring us down.
Getting rid of your comfort zone doesn’t mean accepting every new project or never saying “no” again. It simply means not denying the opportunity to achieve more because it feels uncomfortable, or because you don’t feel ready. In the end, we’re never going to actually feel ready for the next step. Life is about rolling with what comes to you, so instead of trying to make an opportunity fit in the little circle that’s your comfort zone, it’s the time to live your life with that circle five steps behind you. Stick that on your inspirational quote board.
---Corley-Ann Parker
Corley-Ann Parker is a Masters student in the College of Veterinary Medicine