Be Comfortable When You Are Uncomfortable

This TED Talk video " Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable" is presented by Luvvi Ajayi, a Nigerian author, speaker, and digital strategist.

For a line of dominoes to fall, one has to fall first

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In life, to make a change, we have to be the domino. Being a domino means we have to speak up against power and challenge status quo, doing things or making decisions that are difficult with the hope that others will follow suit.

Most of us understand what the statement above says but few understand what it truly means .

We were raised in a society that taught us taking risk will put you in unnecessary danger of rocking the comfortable life you have. From staying in a 9 to 5 job dealing with a boss you hated with your gut to standing up against bullies in the school. People wanted the ideals to happen but few people actually take the necessary steps of doing it. We fear the consequences of taking the leap to challenge the status quo. We let fear to run us over.

Do it anyway

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What I am inspired from watching this talk is the speaker realised fear has a concrete power of keeping us from doing and saying the things that are our purpose. Hence, she made the year 2015 a year of “Do it Anyway”.

The speaker asked herself what is her comfort zone. She realize she felt secured to have her feet solidly on the ground. So in that year, she went zip lining through the forests in Dominican Republic, dive and swam with dolphins in Mexico and even went skydiving, something she described as “anti-me thing”.

When she is sitting on the edge of the plane, she realizes this is exactly similar to our lives. Being in the plane is being in a comfort zone in that situation. We knew we need to jump out of it but most of us chose to sit there looking out of the exit thinking how dangerous and risky it is to jump out.

The only thing different is most of us are envious how other people are courageous of making the leap of faith, we were given the same opportunity to make the leap of faith but we are afraid to take it because it means we are dealing with unknown.

Then, the plane eventually runs out of gas and it has to land on the ground. You will get out of the plane feeling regret that you did not take the jump.

“You shouldn’t do this”, the voice in the speaker’s mind said. However, she did it anyway because she realised she just had to.

After she decided to fight the fear and takes the leap, what awaits is a breathtaking experience that she would never forget. One that she was grateful to find the courage to experience.

When we want to take the leap to do something out of comfort zone, be it starting the business you always wanted to start, to become an artist to inspire the world with your message, or to pursue a love from a woman of our dream, our mind would give us a thousand excuses why we should stay in the comfort zone, that we are not worthy enough of reaching the star.

But, according to the speaker, comfort is overrated. Not speaking up is comfortable, it helps to maintain the status quo. We need to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable by standing up against the what we believe is wrong when they are necessary.

Being the domino sometimes comes down to being exactly who you are

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People with power and the systems need our silence to maintain the order. They need us to act a certain way, and even think a certain way so the we would not rock the balance of power.

However, being yourself can be revolutionary. When the world tells you to paint black and grey, lets be your colourful self and paint it with your color; when they tell you to swim, you fly.

Once you show them you are standing on your ground and send a message to the world that nothing can distract you from your true mission and value, the right people will admire you and follow suit.

When you make the decision to make a stand, you have to ask yourselves these three things:

1. Did I mean what I say?
2. Can I defend it when people challenge my belief?
3. Did I say it out of love and compassion?

If you have resounding “yes” to all three questions, embrace it and let the chip fall. It is something you are supposed to do!

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What are some of your fears and non-supporting beliefs that might stop you from breaking out of your comfort zone to reach your success? Together, let us break these evil voices in this new year of 2018!! Share it in the comment section and upvotes the stories you enjoy reading. I would appreciate you for an upvote if you like me to share posts like this in future.

Posts like this are personal thought after I have watched TED talks online. I will share 2-5 points on the what lessons we can learn and what conventional beliefs we can challenge. All videos and images, unless stated, credit to TED.com and the presenter(s).