if you understand what you’re doing September 10, 2007

“If you understand what you’re doing, you’re not learning anything.”  We’ve all heard a thousand times that you have to get outside of your “comfort zone” in order to learn and grow, which seems to be the point of this fortune.  But the question that it does not address is, why do we value learning?  What’s wrong with staying in your comfort zone?  In strength training, the body will reach plateaus where you don’t increase the weights you are lifting, even though you are working out regularly.  The solution to this is to change your workout, shocking the body with new exercises, causing it to respond to this different challenge by getting stronger.  Perhaps life is the same way.  Staying in your comfort zone for a while can be a good thing, allowing you to “get into shape,” mentally, spiritually or emotionally.  But when you plateau, when your comfort level isn’t comfortable anymore but feels like a rut instead, maybe you have to increase the weight in your life, that is, let yourself approach new challenges, so that you can become a stronger person.