My Attempts at Advice!

So there's this place. It's warm and cosy and comfortable and it's yours (no I'm not talking about your bed). It's a place where you could live quite contently forever and you'd never have to worry about being lost or hurt, because it's safe. It's familiar. This sounds like the best place ever, right?? Wrong.

This place I'm talking about is called 'your comfort zone'. And believe me there's so much beyond it, why, there's a whole wide world.

Everyone has a different comfort zone which is a different size with different boundaries - picture it like a house. Some people live in a small apartment alone with one bedroom and their cat. Others live in a home with a backyard with a swing set. Most of the time the size of their house depends on lots of things like their background and where they came from. I hope you're getting the picture here, what I'm trying to imply with my house metaphor is that not everyone's comfort zones are the same and they usually depend on someone's past and the things they've already experienced in life.

Me, for example, my comfort zone was probably like a little suburban house with some grass out the front with a bus stop to the city down the driveway. I was pretty set in routine - school, work, boyfriend, family - a normal teenage life. I liked to try new things, but I didn't really like to go places by myself. I never wanted to go to sport trials unless I had a friend already in the team to make sure the others wouldn't laugh at me. I hated standing and talking up the front of class unless it was group work and we could look like idiots together.

Occasionally I'd edge a toe or maybe even half my foot over the line between 'safety and risk', I'd stand up to someone at work when I wasn't getting treated fairly or I'd try a random new hairstyle for the day at school. Thrilling, I know.

But ever since I got on a plane to travel to the other side of the world by myself, I think I can say that I've at least begun exploring this new place, this wonderful and scary world which lies beyond the boundary of my comfort zone. Every day I try to challenge myself and push myself even further. But I'm not saying that I go climb a mountain everyday or anything. Sometimes I do just want to stay in bed and watch Harry Potter and that's absolutely fine, as long as I know that I'm not becoming stagnant or retreating back to get stuck in my safe place.

If you really know me or had seen the walls in my teenage bedroom, you'd know that I love quotes - so just google image 'comfort zone quotes' and you'll get hundreds of excellent cheesy ones (with cool mountainous backgrounds) which can motivate you if my own words haven't. But here's something which I think is so valuable to understand - your comfort zone will always be there waiting, but the rest of the world won't.

So I encourage you, whoever you may be, to take my advice and challenge yourself and do something that scares you! I'm not saying go skydiving or enrol yourself in the next theatre performance, but do something you normally wouldn't do or something you've been putting off because you're afraid.  Post that really cute selfie you're proud of, even if you think it's going to get no likes. Talk to someone you think is too cool for you and make a new friend. Put on your shoes, pack a bag, and go explore!

I know this was a little different than my normal 'stories about travelling Europe' posts, but I was feeling inspired and wanted to pass on some kind of wisdom, if I can call it that. Have a wonderful day friends!