Life can seem autonomous at times. It can feel like you are a robot, and your behaviors are so unconscious that it doesn’t even feel like you are truly living. Some would call this “just going through the motions.”

That’s precisely what is happening. When we get caught up in the demands, distractions, and comfort that this generation has afforded us – it becomes seamless to just exist and not truly live. Truly living is a conscious choice each day.

There have been quite a few times when I reflected in my bed when my day was over on how I could have done more, been more, and stepped outside my comfort zone. It’s such a tight feeling in your chest to know that you are capable of doing more, but you give in to comfort and settle into mediocrity.

In the moment it might feel safe and comfortable, but after a while, you feel like you are not really living. You feel stuck even though you feel comfortable. How paradoxical is that? Life becomes a series of mundane tasks, and when new opportunities arise, it’s as if you find every reason to avoid anything different.

A life of comfort breeds a life of stuckness and displeasure. It’s like Neale Donald Walsch said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

Life = opportunities

Life is a series of opportunities where you are presented with a choice to either sit on the sidelines of life or choose to live. These choices are very subtle, but they happen throughout the day more than we sometimes are willing to admit.

And the worst part is we think these decisions are small and don’t influence other aspects of our life. But, in reality, these small decisions are insidious and, over time, have lasting impacts in other areas of our life. Not to mention our overall sense of self.

Our sense of self is the core of you that is constantly being built through every decision and action we make or don’t make. It rarely changes but certainly can either through unconscious behaviors or conscious effort.

Whether it be speaking up for yourself in a disagreement, preparing a little harder for an upcoming presentation, confidently expressing your new idea at work, or choosing to be more present and attentive with your significant other.

Decisions like these are small but play a huge role in the core of who we are and how we ultimately feel internally about ourselves.

Why don’t we want to admit that these seemingly small decisions happen multiple times a day? Because this puts the responsibility on us to uncover them and change. And change is hard. It’s taxing.

Many of us would rather pretend there is something external from us that is causing us to continue to suffer and not realize our potential. The story sounds good to us, and it’s comforting. And the more times we tell it to ourselves, the more we think we will believe it at an unconscious level.

Over a period of time, the story or lie we tell ourselves begins to crumble, and we start to see through it. Finally, it’s reached a tipping point, and we realize this story is not yielding us the quality of life we desire. As we begin seeing through it, confusion disappears, and clarity rises to the surface of our minds.

“Don’t squander your potential living a life that amounts to far less than the one you are capable of living.” Zero Dean

We are now able to see clearer than we ever were before. The story clouded our perception, and now we are taking baby steps toward what our soul truly desires.

As your perception continues to widen, you now see opportunities where before, all you saw were blockages. As a result, you begin to slowly and consciously take advantage of the opportunities presented in front of you.

Your new thoughts breed new actions that allow you to experience what you’ve always desired: freedom of your soul’s potential expressed through you in your relationships, career, and hobbies – making your day-to-day life richer and more satisfying than ever before.

You’re now stepping out of your comfort zone and experiencing what life has to offer. And it’s a glorious feeling, but you just wish you’d done it sooner.

When we finally realize the story we’ve been telling ourselves each day isn’t the one that is going to yield us the life we desire, that’s when we flip the script and write a new one.

It just begins with one new thought followed by a series of subtle actions that give rise to a life of living outside of your comfort zone and rightfully stepping into the person you always knew you could be.