How well do you know yourself? This is a serious question! I admire those who ‘know themselves’. But I question exactly what it is they ‘know’. Does that mean they know what they like, don’t like, depths and heights and width of their capabilities and boundaries? Even if these are known, how likely are we to move the drawn line under pressure? When change threatens a shift of that line beyond its current  position, then what happens? I contend that it depends on why and where the line is drawn. For example, I know folks who have their boundaries so definitively drawn that they won’t even consider doing anything that lies outside of their current comfort zone. You may hear them make statements like: This is how I’ve always done it and it works for me. Or, if it ain’t broken, why fix it? Or, leave good enough alone. Or, I finally ‘made it’! There’s something to be said for all of those old adages. However, when it comes to your career and your life, it’s worth taking a look at the limitations of too much comfort.

Maybe I’m too much of a personality type that’s always felt uncomfortable with too much comfort. But somehow too much comfort always made me feel like I wouldn’t be prepared if I had to shift on a dime, for any reason. Consider if your comfort is too dependent upon someone or something else other than yourself, then how comfortable can you afford to be? For example, we can become very comfortable in our job or profession. But what happens if that profession loses it’s marketability or our position is eliminated or our company undergoes a merger? Then how do we react to that change? What happens to the lines we’ve drawn to define ourselves? Do we see our comfort zone now as a danger zone? Or what happens when life throws us the proverbial curve and something unexpected and challenging occurs in our life or the life of a loved one or close friend? Then our comfort zone can suddenly become very uncomfortable. Arguably, this type of change can take a longer transition time than those that impact our careers, especially if the impact is one of health or life or death. We can plan ahead as much as possible for discomfort in our careers. Our life plan, on the other hand, is governed by forces that we cannot see until they are revealed.

So whether we are faced with a sudden career change, or life change, or retirement, we must continue to make our best plans. But we must not limit ourselves by drawing our lines so firmly in the sand that we cannot redraw when the surf washes it away. We always have the freedom to chose a different perspective, plan, or path which leads to the truest comfort zone: openness, discovery, and re-creation.