While the week has been mostly a restful one, it did not quite end that way for yours truly, which is never a good time. However, I’ve still got my heart set on sticking to my writing schedule before I hang it up for my work week, so it’s time we consider some Words of Wisdom (WoW) before wrapping it all up. There’s a couple of ideas I’ve had kicking around my head this week, so we might get more of an amalgamation of creative events here, let’s see what ends up happening.

Even as I was writing my article about “Comfort Zoning” earlier this week, in regards to Mina The Hollower, I immediately knew it was the kind of idea that was likely an ideal fit for WoW, even as I was writing it, as it put on blast an excellent notion that, even without much thought or effort involved, we are always capable of selling ourselves short, in the most self-sabotaging ways possible. There are of course, contexts where giving our 100% looks different on a day to day basis, as we might be so drained, we are running at half capacity, so our 100% that day is only half as good, but as long as you’re still giving it your all, that’s still the best you’ve got, and it’s not your worst.

However, it’s worth repeating that one of our primary goals everyday is to compete with who we were the day before, cause that is the only person it is truly important to compete against, in attempting to be the best version of ourselves we possibly can be. To that point, if one does want to self-improve in a meaningful way, we have to go outside our own comfort zone to do it, or we will only ever really be maintaining our abilities or potential, and never pushing ourselves for bigger and better things. When we “play it safe” and stick to what we know; we aren’t attempting to reach new heights, we are just performing routine maintenance, which in the long run, will never have us see any results in the realm of self-improvement. If we do this all the time? That’s when we start “Comfort Zoning” (CZ), and its got to be one of the worst habits I can think of, in terms of long term damage to greater chances at more satisfaction of self.

As I touched upon slightly in my Mina article, I think CZ is something so insidious, we can do it to ourselves, and not even realize we do it, in and out of specific zones of expertise, as people are creatures of habit, and when the going gets rough, we tend to downshift a gear from thriving to just merely surviving. This reliance on the bare minimum, from time to time, is understandable, as life can be quite brutal, and we might be at the end of our rope, so to get by and live to see another day with our sanity intact, is in a way, a big ask in going outside our comfort zone when we just wanted to stay in bed in the first place. I think it is when we start defaulting to the lowest common denominator behavior do we start to cultivate the bad habit that is CZ, and once the downward spiral begins, it is near impossible to pull ourselves out of a ninety degree tailspin of epically apocalyptic proportions.

As previously alluded to, in order to see the best potential results of how we can refine, we have to push ourselves just beyond what we think we are capable of, or else we will never see the new and improved us, and if we are always competing with ourselves to be the best version we possibly can be, we gotta disown that comfort zone, and start putting foot to ass, in order to compete in the ass kicking competition of self-improvement. This is obviously easier said than done in a domain of our own mastery, so don’t worry about reformatting your entire life from the ground up to become some kind of efficiency machine, but we do gotta start somewhere, and like most Words of Wisdom, the first best place to start is to ask “Why?” In this case, the why is easy, as it signifies we are curious as to why we want to better ourselves, and if we are going on just one basic theory of living the good life, we can look back 2000 years ago, when Aristotle waxed philosophically about something called “Eudaimonia”, which translates from Greek as “flourishing” (very roughly). A big component of being Eudaimonic, is self-improvement, which means the comfort zone is the biggest threat and greatest obstacle, in reaching this desired state of being, that Aristotle wisely promulgated upon all of those years ago.

So, what’s the quick fix? Well, there isn’t necessarily a shortcut here, as like most Words of Wisdom, meaningful change demands meaningful effort, so we will definitely have to put in some footwork to see legitimate alteration to our sense of self and a refinement of our habits habits, in order to make sure we minimize our CZ ways as much as possible. However, where it might not be a quick fix, it is a relatively straight forward one, as all we have to do is be mindful of how we live our everyday lives, and just push ourselves to do just a little bit more, a little bit at a consistent time.

This “little more” everyday could be looked at as the “1% rule”, meaning, that if you just do what you’re doing now, and put just 1% more of your time or effort into how you do it, little by little, and day by day, you will see growth and refinement over a consistent period of time, as to form good habits, it is about consistency, and maintaining that consistency that matters the most. So, let’s say for example you’re stuck in your own comfort zone with something as simple as a video game high score. Just practice 1% more, by putting in just that little more time in everyday, or increase your score by 1%, and your CZ will grow little by little. You can apply this to physical exercise, studying, practicing a real life skill, spending time with loved ones, you name. As long as you’re even pushing yourself just 1% more in some way, whether it be with a few more minutes than we are use to, or just that little push of increased exertion to achieve a little more every day, you will always be ever increasing your CZ, and will have successfully squashed a bad habit right in its tracks. This should go a long way in helping you reach a state of Eudaiamonic being, and with it, your best self as well. Give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose but a worse you.

As always, take care of yourself, and each other.

~Pashford

(Shout out to sock puppet gayness in keeping it real: https://www.onetocelebrate.com/blogs/news/a-queer-sock-puppet-workshop-at-the-los-angeles-lgbt-center)