It’s comfortable in our comfort zones. We know what to expect and we can relax without worrying about anything. But this is also where we find stagnation–comfort breeds complacency and when we’re too comfortable, we stop growing. As graphic designers, it’s important for us to constantly push ourselves out of our comfort zones. We need to be uncomfortable if we want to grow and become better professionals. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of breaking comfort zones to facilitate growth in graphic design, and why it’s so crucial for us to embrace discomfort.
Destroy Your Comfort Zones
Do I look comfortable in that video? I bet I don’t; it’s because I’m not. But here’s the truth: everything that you want in life is on the other side of hard work. As an entrepreneur, I truly believe that entrepreneurship is the greatest path to self-improvement. And what would self-improvement be without opposition? So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump right into this!
I am constantly running into opposition. all that people see is a successful side but they don’t see the things that you have to do when you get kicked in the shins like losing your microphone. I’m using a backup microphone in the video because we lost our microphone on a trip to Destin, Florida. I don’t know where it went- it got lost in the Uber or Lyft ride or on the plane, but it’s gone. So, to make the video, I had to make some adjustments. I had to push through the uncomfortableness and now I’m going to knock out an article that’s going to hopefully change your life.
Self-Success
One of the things I want to start this article by saying is this is not a self-help article. Again, this is not a self-help article. It’s a self-success article. I wanted to write this article because I have constantly run across entrepreneur after entrepreneur who is not happy with where they’re at in their career – whether it’s money, fulfillment, or burnout. I run into these people all the time and it’s because they choose to put their value in comfort versus discomfort. And I’m one of those people. We’re going to talk about that today.
It’s critical to your growth that you start to step outside of that comfort zone and start going after the discomfort. I had some life-changing transformations that happened to me in Florida, and I’ve talked about that in another article. But this article is about the foundation of those changes.
Henry Cavill on the Dangers of Comfort
It’s really important that you understand stepping outside your comfort zone is essential to growth, so I want to share with you a quick quote by Henry Cavill. This is a great quote, and it comes from Superman himself: “Comfort is a drug. It’s addictive. Give a weak man regular sex, good food, and cheap entertainment and he will throw his ambitions right out the window. The comfort zone is where your dreams go to die.”
That is one of the most powerful statements I’ve seen. After just experiencing what I experienced last week, which I’ll share with you in future articles, I know that every time I’ve gotten comfortable in any particular place in my life, it’s where I’ve actually moved backward in my life. I don’t want to live a life halfway or even ninety percent; I want to live my life at one-hundred percent. Full-bore, foot-on-the-gas sustained momentum and exponential growth. So it’s really important you take this to heart: living outside of your comfort zone is the way you’re going to get the most amount of growth.
Recognizing Comfort Zones
So I have a quick question – are you part of the majority of society that values their comfort over discomfort? They focus on Netflix, they focus on having fun, they focus on drinking and partying with their friends. What category are you in? Maybe it’s not as complicated or as lazy or as free-spirited as that, but maybe you just have one thing in your life like I did where I was slacking off in my fitness.
Another thing I wanted to tell you is that age is a terrible excuse. If you’re young and you think that you have plenty of time to be comfortable and have fun, you’re wrong. And if you’re old and you think that you’ve already earned this comfort in your retirement, you’re even more wrong. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest and when you accept comfort into your life, you’re accepting mediocrity. For me, that’s unacceptable.
Comfort Zones Include the Physical
I have another question: are you the kind of person that likes to take nice warm or hot showers like me? I think the majority of society does. When’s the last time you actually took a cold shower? The actual health benefits you could get from a cold shower are far superior to what you would get in a warm shower or a hot shower. And so it’s not about being tough but it’s about getting control over your mind over your body and pushing yourself beyond your limits beyond that comfort zone and learning how to actually breathe correctly and have control over feeling cold. It’s just about reaching the highest potential in your life.
Comfort Zones Inhibit Potential
I wanted to help you guys really step outside of your comfort zone and start to push the limits of what you think you’re even capable of. So, the last thing that I really wanted to mention is that it’s time for you to take a really hard look in the mirror in all the different aspects of your life and ask yourself: “Am I living up to my full potential? Am I doing the things required to get the outcome that I want from my life?”
Maybe you’re not clear about what you want from your life. But it’s really important that you get clear and that you spend as much time as possible figuring out what that is, whatever it’s going to take for you to get to that point. That’s what you need to invest your time into and get uncomfortable – put yourself into situations like having to spend money on a coach or a mentor or some sort of program to find what it is that you’re really after in life, and that’s going to help you bring some clarity and reach your full potential.
Why You Need to Break Free
One of the hard facts a lot of people suffer within a business is realizing that they’re going to come up against opposition. A lot of business owners who start their businesses face opposition within their first month, two months, six months, and year. In fact, 90 of businesses don’t succeed within their first five years. All these businesses fail why? Because of opposition.
It may be in their sales or it may be in fulfillment dealing with clients. The opposition is uncomfortable, and so it seems unmanageable. It becomes something not worth facing. These entrepreneurs may decide to give up on their dream and go back to working a nine to five.
This is not what you are here for; you were reading this article to invest in yourself and make an agreement with yourself to push past opposition and fear. Push through to the point where you feel like throwing up – if necessary – to achieve your goals.
Final Thoughts
I am doing those things now in my own life. I’m taking responsibility for those things because my success–not just in my business but in my life—is dependent upon it. So, I really want you to face the music. Take a hard look at yourself and really ask yourself if you’re doing everything in your life possible to step out of your comfort zone. And if you’re not, you need to get around a group of people that are.
That’s why I want to personally invite you to the Instagraphics Pro Network. We are a group of the best designers on the planet, and I would love to have you so make sure you join the group. It’s easy to find on Facebook; it’s called the Instagraphics Pro Network. I would love to see you guys there. Thank you so much for reading. I look forward to seeing you guys in the next article. I’m Adrian Boysel, and as always, keep looking up!