Comfort is Relative

 

Are you flexible? How so? Come on, admit it; you have comfort zones that are teetering on the brink of destruction! I know, because we all have those. It's normal to rely on certain conditions and get used to a routine, for example. Some people can change more easily than others- well, everybody's different, so this is not really a shock. Plus, it's easy to understand how someone can get comfortable and not want to change- change could lessen the comfort!

Unfortunately, the only thing you can count on for sure in this world is change. While life experiences do prepare us for a lot of possible future changes, those changes never seem to end up being the ones we prepared for or expected. The unknown, the unexpected and other forces create personal stress. The more flexible we learn to be, the less stress occurs when those unexpected things happen. And they will happen.

Within each of us resides a subconscious self who is flexible and versatile to a certain degree, plus it came with a certain stretching ability. Some people are naturally good at dealing with change; others are more resistant. Like just about any other category that you can come up with, you wind up with the majority of the population in the middle, with outliers on both ends of the spectrum -as in a bell-shaped curve. Here it is:

Chart illustrates that flexibility translates into success

Red dots represent bunches of humans. Most are clustered near the center, half-flexible and half not. The least number of humans lies near the top end at super-adaptable, and these happen to be the most successful humans of all (see red success curve). So if you buy into this theory, if you believe that flexibility translates into success, it follows that becoming adaptable will help make you a successful human on this massive chunk of change that we all live on.

Where is your red dot? Mine is to the right of center, but not far enough- because I still have some comfort zones that I don't want to give up. It would be painful. At least I understand the concept, though, and this helps sometimes. The point here is that all of us need to move to the right, continuously, until we can call ourselves "enlightened." Many people in business (and in schools) like to preach about flexibility, because it is one of the many of today's mantras. But do they really want you flexible? For yourself? In many cases they might not, particularly if it would mean change for them! And we already learned that change is painful.

If the preceeding paragraph hit a nerve, you might consider sliding over to the right a bit on the chart; your old boss will only miss you for a while, I know because mine never even gave me a second thought after the layoff! The state I live in wanted me to be flexible, evidently, though- they wanted me to take a job at half the pay I was accustomed to (hooked on), and unemployment benefits had nothing to do with it (or so they claimed)!

So back to flexibility and how it affects your success factor: I knew many people in the dark ages (when I worked in factories and manufacturing environments) that were so tied to (totally dependent upon) their jobs that if they were to get laid off, it was the end of the world. This opinion did not help them advance after the fact; contrary, it was destructive for them, and for their families as well! The folks (in my experience) who always did well were the positive thinkers, bar none. None.

Not another lecture about positive thinking! Yes, Grasshopper, it is another lecture about your attitude. Why keep harping on this? Because it is the one thing that can save you and make you successful and happier, and that is what you want and need. Who wouldn't? You deserve it. Now get out there and be flexible, darn it.

We want you to succeed; in fact, we want to make a huge difference for the population -hence the obsession with customer service- so even if you get your motivation and/or subliminal audio tracks someplace else, you might have paid too much- but at least you did it. Do it (succeed), because you can - you have all the tools. If you are reading this, you have a perfectly-functioning brain, well as perfect as anyone's - so don't waste it. If you're having problems or are not satisfied with some aspect of your personal performance, do it yourself- because it's all self-help anyway!

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