It is rightly said, “Great things never came from comfort zones.” True, as humans we all have a latent tendency towards aligning with our protective shells or cocoons. We have been so acclimated to them that we conduce to resisting any change even if that change is for good. However, it is at this time that we need to push our limits and envisage that in order to achieve anything of any significance or importance, we need to break free from this shell of our comfort zone. Though in today’s smart work generation, the adage “There’s no shortcut to success,” maybe hackneyed but there lies a great deal of truth in the fact that the paramountcy of hard work and persistence must never be disparaged.

Having been a witness to a number of talented people ending up with average mainstream lives and income myself while also seeing those though not that proficient or skilled, achieving great success solely on account of their hard work, tenacity, and the will to accomplish something out of their lives. The business magnate and the chairman of the leading multinational technology conglomerate Ali Baba Group, Jack Ma, didn’t reach this pinnacle in a day. After being rejected by over 30 times from wherever he applied including Harvard University and KFC, he never lost hope and kept trying. Though not skilled in any of the most demanded job profiles including management, technology, IT, etc, he possessed great leadership skills, influencing a set of immensely skilled people and making them work in tandem with each other in order to produce some great results. In his words, “I knew nothing about technology or management. But you don’t have to know a lot of things. You may just need to find people smarter than you and make sure that these smart people can work together to achieve a common vision, your vision.”

Even Elon Musk, one of the most effective business tycoons today, rented a small office instead of an apartment upon starting his first company. He slept on the couch, showered at the YMCA, had just one computer and would work seven days a week spending plenty of sleepless nights before he was actually able to set up great innovations like Tesla, Space-ex, PayPal, etc. There may be a plethora of such success stories out there to derive inspiration from. But we need to comprehend that these stories are not just to be seen as a means of inspiration but rather a way to observe and learn that “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” As rational educated beings, it wouldn’t be a task for us to decipher the common traits all these people share and that is not just their hard work or tenacity but willingness to come out of their comfort zones, to learn and grow each day, to not settle for the ordinary instead realize their own worth to achieve anything and everything they envision and that is what makes the difference.

The simple maths is that “In order to achieve something you never achieved before, you also need to do something you never did before.” We often get reluctant when it comes to taking risks. Avoiding risks is another aspect of living within the boundaries of our comfort. Even in terms of career, students scarcely go for options like singing, dance, theatre, etc as they conventionally do not ensure a consistent or stable income for the future. Giving up one’s passion in order to gain short term stability or income is no brave decision. We must discern that courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear. It simply means overcoming those fears to attain what we want. We are so at home with our comfort zones and tied with the fear of coming out of it that we don’t even realize all that we might be capable of doing within a lifetime and thus end up with the same 9-5 jobs. We not just compromise on this chance of learning or growing but also on our very own happiness and satisfaction as we aren’t even able to decipher where that happiness lies simply because we didn’t even try.

This also renders life futility if we continue being mere puppets to the assumed ways of the world. Yes, there will be times we may fail, we may feel disillusioned and worthless, we may even want to go back to that comfortable shell of ours, but that’s when we should look upon that dream, that purpose, that helped us reach that far in our journey. That’s when we need to know that we didn’t come this far only to come this far. I always remember what one of my school teachers told us one day. She said, “Our lives are just like a pencil, in order to be an effective and useful pencil, we need to sharpen ourselves time and again and that even though that may cause temporary pain or discomfort, but that’s what it takes to build character and to grow.” Another important lesson to learn from most great people is to be able to believe in oneself and in one’s dreams so much so that we never lose that optimistic approach towards life.

Always believe that something great lies ahead as you may never know how close you were to your destination before you decided to give up, so, just keep trying, stay positive. Just like the eraser behind the pencil, life will also give us chances to correct some of our mistakes. We just need to realize when and how to use it to achieve the best results. Moreover, just like the pencil leaves its mark, we also need to learn from our lessons and make our own lives worthwhile. It is a universal truth that nobody lives a perfect, effortless, or uncomplicated life. Everybody has to face challenges and troubles. However, the struggles, challenges, or pain that you would face in course of achieving something you truly yearn for, would always be better than the challenges or agony you face while doing something you did not even want to do in the first place. So, what’s better, trying and failing at something you’re passionate about or slogging and struggling the same way for something you’re least interested in? Look for long term benefits and happiness than mere short-term monetary goals. In fact, it is rightly said, “if an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If the same egg is broken by an inside force, life begins.” 

Thus, never fear to dream, to aspire or to have a goal because only when you’ll have a dream would you be able to work towards it. And remember, don’t compare yourself or your dreams with anyone. Nobody’s dreams are superior or inferior to the other. They are not comparable. While great success stories are a good way to seek motivation, don’t let them define any boundaries for you that you may need to confine yourself within. Make your own boundaries and follow them. Set up small achievable goals, familiarise yourself achieving them and grow slowly and gradually. That will be success in its true, unfeigned form.