Comfort Zone

All week the topics have revolved around solutions that everyone can implement, regardless of their financial situation. Some, obviously, are more involved than others and take more commitment, but the real key on what or whether you implement any solution, is how you feel about it. In other words, are you willing to step outside your comfort zone to implement the solution? If you are not, you will stay in whatever situation your previous decisions have led you, plus a few curveballs that life always throws at you.

Your comfort zone is a limited set of behaviors and environments that a person can engage in without becoming anxious or without creating a sense of unacceptable risk. This comfort zone actually describes your personality and defines who you are as a person. A comfort zone is a type of self-imposed mental conditioning that causes a person to create and operate mental boundaries that are not real. Such boundaries create an unfounded sense of security. Similar to inertia, a person who has established a comfort zone in a particular axis of his or her life, will tend to stay within that zone without stepping outside of it. To step outside a person's comfort zone, he must experiment with new and different behaviors, and then experience the new and different responses that occur within his new environment.

This often determines how much success you experience in life. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish. They are willing to try what others won't, and therefore achieve what others can't. They are not held back by fear or are not intimidated by possible failure. If you are not willing to fail, you will never have success either. This reminds me of the great Yoda line from Empire Strike Back of the Star Wars movie trilogy - "Do or do not, there is no try."

The boundaries of a comfort zone may result in an internally rigid state of mind. A comfort zone often results from unfounded beliefs which, once dispelled, expand the scope of a person's behaviors within the same environment. A comfort zone may alternatively be described with such terms as rigidity, limits or boundaries, or habit, or even as an entrenched or stigmatized behavior. Some people may refer this as stubbornness, alluding to their own boundaries they personally set.

An example could be a recognized need to leave an unsatisfactory job, but the fear prevents him from doing so as it would result in losing the sense of security the individual derives from the job. The sense of security the individual perceives could be attributed to the mental conditioning formed initially. This sense of security could have merit or not, but is immaterial because the person believes the sense of security to be real.

Part of the reason a comfort zone is defined is related to his or her self-image. Self image may consist of three types:

1. Self image resulting from how the individual sees himself or herself
2. Self image resulting from how others see the individual
3. Self image resulting from how the individual perceives others see him or her

These three types may or may not be an accurate representation of the person. All, some, or none of them may be true. But again, it doesn't matter, because of what the person believes about himself.

It is very important to step outside of your comfort zone. It will expand those boundaries you create around yourself and opens up new possibilities. If you don't, you will begin to feel complacent, and over time this will lead to a rut, trapped by the boundaries you created. The only difference between the grave and a rut is the depth. Or, another analogy is a prison. The longer you stay behind the bars, the tougher it is to imagine and experience freedom.

As always, the choice is yours. Are you willing to step outside your comfort zone to achieve what you want? Or will the times get so tough that you are forced to step outside your comfort zone?

Calamity breeds resolve or defeat. What will you choose?

As with all Saturdays, I will recap key indicators that determine many of the moves of the financial markets. The markets consolidated a bit from last week, allowing traders and investors to get more of a comfort level with the new price ranges. Gold fell to $871.60 per ounce as of the closing bell on Friday. Silver also closed Friday lower at $16.55 per ounce. The price of oil also dropped to $134.40 per barrel. All of these moves allowed the US dollar to grow stronger against the other major world currencies as the US dollar index closed at 74.06, the strongest it has been since the beginning of March. The question is, how long will this consolidation last?

Think on the following lesson from I Kings:

When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The LORD said to him:
"I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

"But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. I Kings 9:1-7 (NIV)

If you have comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com