The comfort zone: It's not the enemy to success

When I'm reading online magazines and they talk about steps to becoming more successful, I've noticed that there are many who believe in order to achieve success or to change your life for the better, you must leave your comfort zone behind and get well, uncomfortable in order to see change.

They say in order to create something new, things have to change, I believe this to be true, if you always do what you always did etc. etc. but is it really necessary to force or to be scared? One woman said she hadn't felt comfortable in years and believes her life to be a success because of it. Do we really need to be so pushy with ourselves or take on experiences that fill us with dread? Does success really have to be paired with a weakly disguised set of fears?

It seems to me, after more than 20 years of teaching Reiki and practising it daily that there is another way. For me, success must start at home, it must start with the basics, where we are now. In order to find any improvement, I believe we must first come into acceptance with who and where we are, with the supposed flaws, limitations (always self-imposed by the way) and problems we are facing and wanting to move away from...we need to first become comfortable with ourselves now, as we are before new and improved can come in.

The comfort zone can be many things for us all. Here I'm not suggesting holding ourselves in damaging patterns, ruts or relationships, which can be falsely labelled as comforting, but even then, we must first accept and forgive these situations before we can truly leave them behind without creating more of the same down the road...and believe me, I know that isn't always easy but it is possible, forgiveness being essential to our becoming free of the past so we can move forward clean.

Finding acceptance means implementing grace, it means finding hope in our hearts, having a little faith in ourselves and life and it means learning to look for ways to improve. Being open to trusting the process, starting to turn the ship around by focusing on what we DO want instead of what has already happened, which of course, we cannot change.

I believe we must build a sturdy foundation for ourselves from which to build our new life/success. This is where having a strong, true loving comfort zone is essential. If we build this within ourselves, in our minds and hearts, then we will begin to see changes outside, in the world we see around us. If we push ourselves before we've done the inner work (where the real hard work and fear lies) things rarely work out well, with any perceived success soon melting away. 

We can become more successful if we operate from love, this firm foundation gives us new abilities to embrace changes when the time is right, then things happen, they feel good, things shift and we move on toward whatever is calling our hearts forward...but we feel ease within what is happening, it feels right, natural. We are present, grounded and empowered by it. The process breeds true confidence and we begin to experience new facets of ourselves in very positive and sometimes quite amazing ways...

Things and people sometimes take time to change, and learning to trust ourselves and our timing is crucial to real success. And apparently, the Universe does not measure success by money, size or race, but by the amount of joy a person feels each day. I certainly do believe that by working on the basics and becoming comfortable with who we are first will naturally lead us to new, rewarding situations and experiences. This is my experience. We are equipped when the time is right. Life unfolds better when we stop trying. TRUST. Let go, stop pushing. Surrender the burden of being successful so you can truly be...