“In order to prove to yourself what you are capable of doing, you need to step out your comfort zone, otherwise you are limiting yourself and you will never grow”, sounds familiar?.
Have you heard that phrase more than enough? have you experienced the result of stepping out of your comfort zone? your usual space, that place where you know everyone and everything you believe you need to know and nothing else?
While thinking of this, someone pops up in my mind and I started reminiscing. I remembered how happy I was when I first met Totito and how sad I was when he left this life.
Allow me to tell you about Totito and his space, his zone of comfort where he lived till his last day in this world.
In the comfort zone for 18 years.
He did not grow what I now know he could have grown and neither did I know that it was me and family who were preventing his growth. You see, he grew just as big as the space that we gave him to live in and he never wanted to move from the space he knew since a little baby.
I guess by now you have guessed that I’m not talking about a human being, but about an animal for Totito, was my turtle, my pet, my friend as a kid.
Living in his glass room, he was only out to stretch his paws and back in when he wanted to eat. Totito grew in size within the limits of his glass room. If we had changed his space to a bigger one, surely Totito would have grown. He would have developed much more.
“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” Mahatma Gandhi
The same happens with us.
If we stay within our comfort zone, afraid of what is out there, not wanting to be challenged and discover what else we are capable of as if everything and everyone else is bigger than us, we will never know how great our potential is, how far we could have gotten or how much we missed out learning and growing.
Today It might also be that your family and/or dear friends, without it being their intention, are doing the same as we did with Totito by not allowing you to move away and grow, taking risks, getting hurt, making mistakes, which is the only way you learn and become stronger.
As a leader you are also called to encourage others to step out that smaller space where there is no room for self discovery . Challenging your team will always be better than keeping them
I will always remember Totito.
He was a different type of pet compared to others like Mike, my puppy, a cat or a rabbit, with them you can play, run and jump; but not with a turtle. Even so, I have learned from him many valuable lessons of life, things that made me think different ergo act different and helped me move away from my comfort zone.
I can also assure you that once you face it and see everything you are capable of, you will realize that it does not matter what life throws at you, you can handle it, just step out to a bigger and wider space of possibilities.