The Difference Between Comfort and Success
Being comfortable is a basic human desire, but it's not a human need.
At our most fundamental level, we all want to be comfortable.
Being comfortable is a nice thing.
But in order to survive, we don't absolutely need to be comfortable.
It helps, but it isn't a requirement of survival.
It's a sad statement, but one only needs to observe homeless people living in a cardboard box on the street in the middle of winter to realize that survival does not necessarily equate to comfort.
The same is true for comfort and success.
Although it's clearly a matter of your personal value system, being comfortable might not actually represent success, at least if you consider massive success to be a function of your grand dreams and visions.
If you would love to take a vacation on a 100' yacht in the Caribbean and wind up paddling your canoe around a lake instead, you might be comfortable, but you're not as successful as you'd like to be.
If you were, of course, you'd be on that yacht instead.
What happens though is that as our careers progress, we often lose sight of true success and settle instead for simple comfort.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this, and if being comfortable is all that you seek from life, well then so be it.
But clearly comfort represents a level of achievement far below our true potential.
And that is a waste, because you owe it not only to yourself but to your family as well to achieve at the highest level possible.
Of course, achieving at such a high level-a level that more fully utilizes your talent, skill and potential-requires a corresponding increase in effort as well.
Becoming massively successful is not easy.
It requires a lot of hard work to accomplish, which is why so many people don't get to where they really want to be.
They get comfortable, see how much extra work they'd have to do to really make their mark, and simply choose not to.
And if the process stopped there, it probably wouldn't matter all that much because at least we all get to make this call ourselves.
The problem arises when we start approaching middle age, often with a growing family in tow, and realize-almost too late-that we haven't tapped into our true potential.
That, in favor of comfort, we've wasted precious years that could have brought us much closer to our desired goal.
But it's never too late to change.
The sooner you start the better.
At our most fundamental level, we all want to be comfortable.
Being comfortable is a nice thing.
But in order to survive, we don't absolutely need to be comfortable.
It helps, but it isn't a requirement of survival.
It's a sad statement, but one only needs to observe homeless people living in a cardboard box on the street in the middle of winter to realize that survival does not necessarily equate to comfort.
The same is true for comfort and success.
Although it's clearly a matter of your personal value system, being comfortable might not actually represent success, at least if you consider massive success to be a function of your grand dreams and visions.
If you would love to take a vacation on a 100' yacht in the Caribbean and wind up paddling your canoe around a lake instead, you might be comfortable, but you're not as successful as you'd like to be.
If you were, of course, you'd be on that yacht instead.
What happens though is that as our careers progress, we often lose sight of true success and settle instead for simple comfort.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this, and if being comfortable is all that you seek from life, well then so be it.
But clearly comfort represents a level of achievement far below our true potential.
And that is a waste, because you owe it not only to yourself but to your family as well to achieve at the highest level possible.
Of course, achieving at such a high level-a level that more fully utilizes your talent, skill and potential-requires a corresponding increase in effort as well.
Becoming massively successful is not easy.
It requires a lot of hard work to accomplish, which is why so many people don't get to where they really want to be.
They get comfortable, see how much extra work they'd have to do to really make their mark, and simply choose not to.
And if the process stopped there, it probably wouldn't matter all that much because at least we all get to make this call ourselves.
The problem arises when we start approaching middle age, often with a growing family in tow, and realize-almost too late-that we haven't tapped into our true potential.
That, in favor of comfort, we've wasted precious years that could have brought us much closer to our desired goal.
But it's never too late to change.
The sooner you start the better.
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