A case for living outside your comfort zone

On my first week living in Los Angeles I found myself standing next to a guy in a grocery store line who was wearing an L.A. Lakers shirt. Being from a basketball city like Memphis I felt I should strike up a friendly conversation about hoops; as any good southerner would do. The guy gave me a “I don’t know you, why are you talking to me?” look.

That’s the moment I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

I moved to Los Angeles six years ago. At the time it was the very last thing I wanted to do and to this day it’s the hardest thing I have ever done. I knew for a long time I was supposed to move to California, so I ended up being one of those people who just packed everything into the back of their truck and headed west. I arrived with no place to live, no job and no leads or prospects.

I had lived in Memphis for most of my life and was leaving all my friends and everything I knew for over 20 years. I had to quit a real job (read: salary and health insurance) and leave my amazing clients. I was even in a long-term relationship at the time. And to top it off, I was leaving a close-knit family and a father who was in the midst of a battle with cancer.

I was woefully unprepared for the west coast. Before my move I had only visited L.A. one time with a friend to scout out the eventual relocation. We stayed for three days and I thought it was the dirtiest, most awful place I had visited. The City of Angels was not at all like I had seen it portrayed on TV. I had no idea where anything was or which part of town was which; I didn’t know Inglewood from Hollywood or the Valley from the South Bay. Then I looked at a couple of apartments and the rental prices almost made me fall over dead.

I’m embarrassed to say that I also pronounced “Wilshire” the way it looks like it should be pronounced. And I definitely wasn’t used to green being a color you can only see when you look up.

Los Angeles is a concrete jungle and I was the slow gazelle.

Needless to say, moving 2000 miles from home was a long way outside my comfort zone.

Now, six incredibly crazy years later, I love living in Los Angeles. But I’m still continually living outside my comfort zone: I’m an introvert who works in the entertainment industry. I’m a very private person who must sometimes be self-promotional. And I’m a naturally quiet person who feels called to be open in order to help others.

But I have grown more as a person outside my comfort zone than I have anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong, I like comfort. All of us want a comfortable life but that’s not always what’s best for us.

Here are five reasons I live outside my comfort zone:

Outside your comfort zone is where you learn

You miss a lot when you live in a comfort zone. You’ve seen it all before and that’s why it’s comfortable. But you don’t learn new things when you are comfortable with old things.

Outside your comfort zone is where you grow

When you don’t learn, you don’t grow. If you want to get wiser and not just older you have to get uncomfortable.

Outside your comfort zone is where you are challenged

It’s hard to live outside your comfort zone. That’s why they call it a comfort zone. But you are rarely challenged when you are comfortable with life.