Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Mark Zuckerberg. Warren Buffet.

Unless if you live under a rock, we’ve all heard of these people. These billionaires are able to retire anytime with their ridiculous fortunes. But have you ever wondered why they choose to keep working?

It’s their passion that creates a fulfilled life. In other words, it’s the feeling of satisfaction or happiness because of fully developing one’s abilities or character. A fulfilled life is unpredictable, full of challenges and the process through failures and successes is what makes us grow stronger.

We are all born to have dreams, goals and visions. For some, these may not be awakened until later in life when we encounter more experiences in life.

Just don’t lose the drive and your goals or else you’ll end up in the most dangerous place on Earth.

The ‘comfort zone’

It’s comfortable and safe. But it can also be a place of stagnation, it keeps you from seizing opportunities and challenging yourself for growth, just because it involves something unfamiliar.

If you tried to explain this concept to me a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t understand. In fact, I would think you’re crazy. Why would you still want to be self-critical once you’ve attained the ‘comfortable’ state?

It wasn’t until my friend Tyler, who explained it to me.

During his junior year, he worked at Asana as Software Engineer during his summer internship. Upon a successful term with a great performance report, he was offered an early full-time offer with great benefits – $130k base + $30 signing + stock options, free food (made by skilled chefs).

But he just rejected… Why? Who wouldn’t take that sweet offer?

“I always think tech companies often tries very hard to ‘build a culture’ with their perks and benefits to make employees more comfortable at work. But it is also to make you complacent, because when people are comfortable, they don’t want to change.”

Tyler Zhang

When I thought about it further, he had a point. Being too comfortable is a dangerous zone that leads to complacency. Complacency does NOT lead to greater levels of success. Ideally, you want to avoid the comfort zone. It’s okay to feel a sense of accomplishments in your career but the problem arises when those feelings start to betray you – hold you hostage and not allowing the freedom for self-improvement.  

In other words, you’re basically sabotaging yourself and saying, “I’m NOT open to opportunity!”

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

“I don’t have enough time”.

 “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

“I still have loans to pay off”.

“I don’t know where to start”.

These are all invented reasons we create to justify our procrastination habits and neglect responsibility.

Taking risks at the right time

Not tomorrow. Not later. The best time is now.

Stop wasting time.

Consider this figure shown above, a group of psychologists from Duke University led by David Paulsen reported risk aversion increases both with age and with increasing economic risk.

Participants ranging from children, adolescents and adults were given choices between a sure bet and a risky bet with expected value while varying the disparity between the maximum and minimum rewards available for the gamble.

Two choices, either a low-risk gamble of winning 5 or 3 coins or a high-risk gamble of winning 8 or 0 coins. Using the coefficient of variation (CV) or the measurement of risk the study analysis concluded when the CV was low, there was no group differences in risk-taking between children, adolescents and adults. However, when CV increased, age related differences in choice arose.

Hence, children were mildly risk-seeking, adolescents were mildly risk-averse, and adults were reliably risk adverse.

Do. Not think.

Fear is a natural feeling and essential part in growth. Every time we choose to step outside our comfort zone, the next uncomfortable thing becomes easier with practice.

Create a list of growth goals

Recently, I got into a habit of reading the list to myself every morning. This helps build the right mindset and become accountable to them.

Practice starting conversations with strangers

I really enjoy talking to random people. Starbucks. McDonalds. Subway Station. I’ve realized striking up a conversation with the closest person next to me is a great way to overcome shyness with new people.

Conclusion

Think about it, every second you wait to step outside your comfort zone, you’re losing time. The worst regret is wishing you have more time to achieve your goals when you’re old and deteriorating.

Even if you fail, think about it an experience. At least you attempted, instead of staying hungry.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”

Neal Donald Walsch

So, what are your goals? Share them below!

If you’re shy, I would still love to hear your thoughts – please send me an email at hello@kelvinblogs.com!

Enjoy the content? Subscribe to my newsletter for updates when a new post is published!