You have followed others’ directions ever since you can remember.  The thought of finding your own way is attractive, but terrifying.

Even though you want badly to forge your own path, why would you?  Why take the wily, unbeaten way when you could continue doing what you’ve been doing since you were 4?

To continue studying half-interesting material at someone else’s set pace, taking mandatory tests, doing assignments for someone else’s deadlines – instead of stepping out into the real world and having to design your own way?  I can’t blame anyone, it sounds blissful to sit back and let life happen.

College is a comfort zone; a plateau.

Say you have a weightlifting routine. In this routine you have a set weight and number of repetitions. You do this workout 5 days a week in order to build your strength in the targeted muscle groups.

However, there comes a point, usually after 4-6 weeks of the same routine, where your body does not build muscle anymore with those particular exercises, weights, and reps.  Your body has become used to the movements.

The solution?  Change the routine up. Perform different exercises, use heavier weights, and/or do more repetitions. This way your body never becomes so accustomed to something that it stops changing; it never gets too adaptive so that it becomes immune to shaping up. It never plateaus.

In the same way, as a person you want to keep growing and changing. To move through life and stay only in comfort zones prevents this from happening.

This does not mean that a stable, settled life is harmful to your personal growth; quite the contrary. However, as living, breathing, thinking, and feeling people, we need that element of change and diversion constantly in our lives.  

This variance does not have to be big scale – unless you know a complete change of scenery.  Perhaps you could exchange weekend bowling for some horseback riding lessons, or go on a hike and take pictures instead of spending your lunch hour clicking away at your favorite social networking site.

Listen to your soul: whenever you feel yourself getting too comfortable, take a little time to examine your situation, your motivation, and your attitude.  Go where you need to go, do what you need to do, and stay when you need to stay.  Just make sure you aren’t selling yourself short.