From Marc Anthony, "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." to Aristotle, "Surround yourself with a wall of contentment";
From Madame Curie, toiling away in her laboratory to discover radium to Thomas Edison, toiling away at his facilities in West Orange, N.J. to gather a rich harvest of patents for his many inventions that transformed the world;
From Dr. Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study, posing in front of a chalk board covered with equations to come to an understanding of the universe, to Honore de Balzac, hole up in his garot overlooking the rooftops of Paris, to the Lake Poets out among the beauties of nature;
From The Bloomsbury Set in England to the Algonquin Round table;
All have found their comfort zone and found great success and achievement.
You may cite Evel Knievel jumping his motorcycle over cars and trucks and The Grand Canyon--a thrill seeker, and you may cite Lewis and Clark in pursuit of the Northwest passage out in the wilderness as people who've gone outside their comfort zone, but in fact, thrill seeking was Mr. Knievel's comfort zone. Just as exploration was the comfort zone of Lewis and Clark.
You can retort, Madame Curie died of radiation poisoning. But others will cite race car drivers who crash and die in their pursuit of thrills--what's you point?
My point is that many, many people have achieved great success by finding their comfort zone. Still, there are those who admonish us to go outside our comfort zone. Why? Because that is their comfort zone. That is what they sell.
Perhaps, the next time someone scolds you to go outside your comfort zone you can defend yourself from their intrusions by turning the tables: "Why don't you go outside your comfort zone and stop telling me to go outside my comfort zone?"
Let no one take away your happiness and success by bullying your into going outside your comfort zone. Let no one take away your happiness.
Best wishes,
Slim.
Bob Asken
Box 33
Pen Argyl, PA 18072
Etats-Unis
All quotations, except as noted, from
The Quotations of Slim Fairview
Copyright © 2022 Robert Asken
All rights reserved
