LEAVING YOUR COMFORT ZONE.

“Why should I leave my comfort zone?”

“Why should I leave my home for a foreign land?”

The above questions are common questions or related to questions some people ask themselves. Your comfort zone is where you do not feel as leaving. It is your natural habitat. For example, a snail’s comfort zone can be its shell. It can also be the place you feel most secure in as in the case of a snail and its shell. Each person has his/her own comfort zone. It may be your house, your workplace, your village, your school or any milieu you feel safe in.

Leaving your comfort zone can be a very tedious task for many. Imagine leaving a place where you are very comfortable and satisfied with for a place you are less comfortable with. Anyone in his/her right mind will deny, but take it from me or leave it, you succeed more out of your comfort zone than in it. This may seem meaningless to you but it’s the simple truth. When you leave your comfort zone, 1. You have the desire and zeal to succeed. 2. You are not too attached to one thing. These two criteria are very important and if you can fulfill them, then you have no limits.

There is what is called “The Philosophy of the Toad”. A toad is an amphibian and its natural habitat is water. It might be a shallow pond or a deep sea. This philosophy says that when a toad is in a particular pond with shallow water, it tends to stay in it for the rest of its life and never leaves it. In so doing, the toad can never know that somewhere out there, there exists rivers, lakes and seas with deeper and fresh waters unlike the shallow pond which is its natural habitat. What does this tell us? If you cannot leave your comfort zone, you will never know there is something out there greater than what you have in your comfort zone.

Believe me or not , you are most successful in a foreign land than in your homeland. Permit me quote the greatest book ever written; the Holy Bible. There is a very popular man in the book of Genesis called Abram. Before he became popular as he is today, he was living in his father’s land, Haran before God called him. And what did God say to him? He said ”leave your father’s house and your country and follow me to the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 12:1). Abram obeyed and followed God to a Canaan, a foreign land. This is an example of leaving your comfort zone. Abram had everything he needed and wanted in Haran because his father was wealthy. But just the fact that he pulled himself out of his comfort zone to look for better things made him more popular than his father and one of the most accomplished men in the history of humankind. He known today as “Abraham our father in faith” because he left his comfort zone which was his father’s house. If he had stayed in Haran, he would have enjoyed his father’s wealth, yes, but he would have been living in his father’s shadow and would not have made a name for his own.

 

 There’s this popular quote which says, “A prophet is never accepted in his own country. “ — Jesus Christ. Why? This is because of familiarity. Due to the fact that those in your country know you, there’s always this familiarity that makes them not take you seriously and it makes success slower. Whereas if you’re in a foreign land where no one knows you, you’ll not encounter this familiarity and so you can excel much faster.

We Africans, let us learn to stop being comfortable in our poverty and misery. Let us rise, leave our not-so-comfortable comfort zone and do something to put Africa where it belongs. It might be our mental comfort zones keeping us in one position, but I pray that as you read this article, may you be inspired and have the zeal to learn more and use your knowledge to do good.

WE ARE AFRICA.

 

Written by Bobgala Harrison. 

For LENJVAL Group, Douala, Cameroon