There are many articles on the Internet that urge people to “get out of their comfort zone.” The so-called “your comfort zone, is slowly destroying you.”
This view is very marketable because they take the premise that “effort does not always pay off, no effort must not”.
Even if there is no gain, it is just maintaining the status quo, so why not give it a try?
This major premise, may not be correct.
Stepping out of your comfort zone is not the only possibility of “new gains” and “maintaining the status quo”, there will be a third scenario.
In the Time and energy wasted at the same time, along with the original capital, together with the loss.
A few years ago a boy joined our company, state-owned enterprises, stable work, a fair salary. But after working for more than a year, he has been depressed.
He felt that he could not learn anything here, there is no opportunity for rapid growth. Just like many young people, this easy comfort makes him incredibly anxious.
Eventually he chose to leave and find a job that required overtime and was challenging.
“One needs to be in the midst of difficulties and challenges in order to progress and grow.” “Hard work doesn’t always pay off, but not hard work definitely doesn’t.”
None of that sounds like a problem, does it?
Here’s the story later.
The level of competition in the new company was not at all comparable to the original company.
He worked hard for a while, then because of poor performance and not appreciated by the leadership, he was sent to a field branch of the company, with a sharp drop in income and the risk of being laid off.
At this point he had to be anxious, not about being too comfortable and developing progress, but about basic livelihoods.
The reason why “getting out of your comfort zone” can turn out badly is that the cost effectiveness of a job is not constant. There are industries that are highly competitive and seemingly busy day in and day out growing at a rapid pace, but with very little real money in return.
Simply put, being busy and suffering does not guarantee growth and gain.
For people in the workplace, there is indeed a possibility that the current comfort zone is the best quality job position that can be found within someone’s ability.
For example, the boy above, if he had chosen to stay in his original company, his salary would have increased much more today than in the “challenging” job later. If judged from God’s perspective, the best decision for him at that time would have been to do nothing.
Instead, he “stepped out of his comfort zone” and actively pursued the “challenge” and “self-improvement”, which instead ruined his future.
This is not only an isolated case, since working for ten years, I have seen many employees who came back to interview with a haggard face after a few years of leaving, and some of them have thinned out their hair a lot.
That’s why the competition in the civil service exam is so fierce, we are all poisoned by society before we know the preciousness of our comfort zone.
But with the acceptance ratio of civil servants, how many lucky people will be able to recover the lost capital?
At this point you may say that it is his lack of proper understanding of his own abilities, then there will always be people who have chosen the right path, right?
Of course there are, and any choice will have survivor bias.
But everything has a price, and survivors don’t get a free lunch.
Writing articles is always “I have a friend”, which comes back to talk about myself.
Young people are always resigned to being in their comfort zone, even salty fish like me.
So starting a few years ago, I started using my time off work to write a manuscript.
Workers don’t have much discretionary time. In order to write hungry, stay up late, anxiety, are commonplace.
Later, my writing finally got the attention of some readers. Compared with the last example, this experience is like a success story of “stepping out of the comfort zone”.
But at the moment of writing this so-called “success story,” I’ve just (mostly) recovered from an unrelenting bout of laryngitis.
I’ve been to the hospital eight times in the last five months.
One only has to get used to a state of suboptimal health to feel perpetually tired, unable to exercise, unable to focus on work, play and socialize, just the way Life is supposed to be.
Over a long period of time, the sluggish “new normal” will wear down a person’s will little by little, and this pain of a dull knife cutting flesh is hard for healthy people to empathize with.
Not to mention that today’s workplace people simply do not dare to get sick, the thought of taking time off work and delaying how troublesome it is, but also the lingering depression.
At the same time, after starting to write, I have always slept on the pillow when the first insomnia, and then the second and third.
The number of Nightmares is increasing, and the number of sudden heart attacks is also increasing. When I thought about something, my chest would suddenly lose its breath.
I say get out of your comfort zone.
Today I am very uncomfortable, so I can ask for mercy.
Finally I made up my mind, and for the first time in years, I didn’t write a single word for half a month.
The pharyngitis, which had stretched for more than five months and which could not be cured by taking countless herbs and western medicines, finally went into temporary remission.
I was finally able to run again, which I had not been able to do for five months.
This is the warning of fate to me to “try hard”.
At 30 years old, all I had was a pharyngitis that could be cured if I stopped overworking.
But if I continue to overwork, what if I’m 40, 50? There are diseases caused by prolonged overwork and depression, aren’t there?
There are also more than a few cases where hard work has damaged your health.
When you reach the age of 30s, there is no shortage of classmates and friends around you who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in the workplace.
When you first hear about the salary figures, you may be envious of them, but if you are their very good friend, you will always see the price behind the hard work.
Sleepless nights. Broken marriages. Missing emotions. Long-lost hobbies.
And most importantly, the loss to realize how precious it is, health.
A competitive job that involves not only physical labor, but also the psychological stress of competition and risk, are direct killers of health.
People struggling with various illnesses constitute a large base, so there is news of sudden death from overwork time after time.
Health, the 1 in front of many 0s.
Do you think it’s worth it?
With that said, I want to remind you again: when we discuss whether “health in exchange for success” is worth it, don’t forget that this is an opportunity that only a few survivors can have.
The greater chance is that you will give your health, neglect your loved ones, struggle hard, and be laid off at the age of 35 when you are left with all the problems.
Or, as in the first example, even 35 years old can not wait.
Some users do not agree with this view, they think that people can also rational and gentle efforts, pay attention to health.
If the general environment really allows this kind of effort, then I certainly agree with this view. But the fact is that there is no such compromise option.
In a time when 996 can be called a blessing, and when the companies where employees who died from overwork are unrepentant, people are afraid that the internal rolls are not serious enough, and the so-called “body-conscious effort” is just an empty phrase.
We can look at the examples around us, which struggling more than one person can do the two most basic things [sleep on time] [eat on time]?
I want to remind everyone that if you feel you are in your comfort zone, then you are already a very lucky person.
So many people are living a hard life, and you still feel comfortable, shouldn’t you cherish the present more? Why do you have to let anxiety ruin everything you already have?
I want to repeat: do not think that “out of the comfort zone” pay only time and energy. It is possible to lose all your capital on this effort.
Just like you can beat 80% of stock investors who study K-line charts day and night if you don’t speculate and do nothing.
If you feel uncomfortable and dissatisfied with the status quo, then of course you can try to change it.
But if you already feel comfortable, then it’s also worth thinking about whether there is a possibility that
The status quo, already of all possibilities, is the best one.
Many things, just like air, are lost before you know how to cherish them.
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