Taking a leap of faith outside of your comfort zone can lead you to something beautiful
By MOLLY THOMPSON – mmtthompson@ucdavis.edu
There’s a certain solace in predictability. It’s nice to settle into the familiarity of routine, to bask in the warm continuity of a comfort zone.
Newness is the opposite; it’s sharp, dark and cold. Out of self-preservation, of course we desire to avoid it. We’re afraid of the dark simply because we don’t know what could be lurking in the corners, not because the darkness itself is particularly threatening. It’s the unknown aspect of it that scares us — for all we know, our worst nightmares are waiting in the shadows.
We avoid new things for the same reason; we simply don’t know what threats they could hold. On the other hand, we know what the routines we’ve built for ourselves look like and we know what to expect — we know that they’re safe.
But the second we stray from that familiar cycle, there enters an element of risk. Suddenly, in the face of the dreaded abyss of the unknown, we can no longer trust the stability that we’ve relied upon for so long.
But that is an inevitable part of life. College is one of the most prominent examples of this instability; everything you’ve known your entire life is uprooted all at once as you’re shoved into a completely novel lifestyle. You no longer have the sanctuary of home to retreat to. Your life as you knew it is gone and you’re left to traverse the dark, scary newness without any idea of what you’ll encounter within it.
But, as much as that darkness could house something insidious, you just as soon might find something beautiful. The thing about the unknown is that it can end up becoming wonderful, just as easily as becoming unpleasant.
Consistency is inherently neutral. While routine can feel safe and comfortable, it has a ceiling for adventure, excitement and joy. When you stay in your comfort zone, you protect yourself from unknown threats while also closing yourself off from potential opportunities. It’s a trade-off — you sacrifice the possibility of exhilaration and thrill for the guarantee of not encountering something scary.
There’s a common saying that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. This rings true. If you stay in your comfort zone, you’re essentially letting all the potential shooting stars pass you by because you’re afraid of being hit by an asteroid. While this sentiment is valid to a certain extent — there’s a lot out there that is truly scary and worth avoiding — it’s so easy to want to hold onto the predictable normalcy of what we know. But at the same time, life without risk is frankly boring.
Of course, this relationship between safety and risk is not a binary situation — you’re not flipping a coin for “good” or “bad.” Within life, you’re inevitably going to find elements of both. When you let go of that familiar routine, there will be setbacks and hardships. However, if you trust the process, letting go of routine can also result in discovery, sunshine and bliss. In other words, if you always stay inside, you’ll never get stung by a bee or sunburned. But you’ll also never see butterflies, city skylines or a blue sky through sunlight leaves.
You can hold onto what you know and stay safe from the unknown, but, in doing so, you’ll miss out on what makes life worth living. Jumping into the deep end is intimidating and hard, but it’s worth it for what you could find when you reach the bottom. Yes, there are unavoidable unpleasantries, but there are also so many wonderful things to find. While you can’t have true joy without a little discomfort, it’s beyond worth it.
“C’est la vie.”
Written by: Molly Thompson — mmtthompson@ucdavis.edu
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