Everybody says, “Step out of your comfort zone, and you will succeed.” Is this true?

When we think of a comfort zone, we imagine it is an environment where we do not face problems or difficulties and feel harmonious and happy. Every day is similar to the previous one.

However, today the world is developing rapidly, we are shocked by news almost every day, and we often need more time to keep up with technological progress.

Due to the volatility of the modern world, we often face difficulties in our lives, which implies leaving our comfort zone. We are often plagued by anxiety about the future. The world is too fluid for us to stay in our comfort zone all the time. Every day, something unpredictable awaits us, or we are anxious because of the expectation of something unexpected.

Under such conditions, the mental picture of a problem-free, harmonious environment is illusory. Due to the influence of social media, this exists, but for someone else, not us. We dream of getting into our comfort zone.

At the same time, our life consists of many areas. And a comfort zone can be a habit of doing something a certain way. For example, you are used to driving to work every day. This is your comfort zone in a very narrow area of life. In other areas, things need to be smoother.

If you change the habit of using a car, you can walk to work. This will be a way out of your comfort zone in a narrow area. But this new habit will eventually benefit your health and improve your physical fitness and mental well-being.

In almost every area of life, you can find small comfort zones that do not contribute to your success. And gradually change them.

Thus, “getting out of your comfort zone” should not be taken literally. After all, very few people are always in a comfortable environment. However, you can always find our small unhealthy habits that can be changed to your advantage.

In his book “The Life You Can Save,” Peter Singer describes an incident on the subway. Construction worker Wesley Autrey did not hesitate when he saw a man falling from the subway platform. Seeing the lights of an oncoming train, he jumped onto the tracks and pushed the man between the rails, shielding him with his own body. The train ran over them, leaving grease marks on Autrey’s cap. Invited to the president’s New Year’s address and praised for his bravery, Autrey downplayed his stunt: “I don’t think I did anything extraordinary. I saw that someone needed help, and I did what I thought was right”.

But often people need help, by giving which it is not necessary to risk our life. Do we give at least such help?

Unfortunately, we are often neutral to strangers, thinking that we have our own problems and the problems of our close people, and we must focus on them. With such a view, we forget about our duties as human beings. We must perform this duty because of social necessity.

Every day in the world, plenty of people die from a lack of food, diseases that are easily cured because they don’t have money to treat themselves, war, etc. On the other hand, plenty of people in developed and developing countries are doing well; they have money to satisfy their primary and most essential needs and also to satisfy their non-essential needs (they buy expensive clothes, although they don’t need them; they go to restaurants, although they can prepare food at home). It is interesting to note that in the last 30 years, the mortality rate due to overweight has exceeded the mortality rate due to undernutrition. All countries, except Africa, are dealing with an alarming increase in overweight — 82% worldwide over the past three decades. However, poverty is still Africa's leading cause of death among children and adolescents. It is well known the leading cause of obesity is excessive food consumption. So if people buy clothes they don’t need, eat excess food, would donate some of their money to the needs of poor people, it would have a good effect.

In his works dedicated to helping strangers, Peter Singer gives a relevant example with a child: “On your way to work, you pass a pond. The water in the pond only reaches your knees. You get closer and notice that it’s a tiny child, just a toddler waving his hands, unable to keep his balance and get out of the water. You look around for the toddler’s parents or babysitter, but no one is nearby. The child cannot keep his head above the water's surface for a few seconds. He may drown if you do not enter the pond and pull him out. You don’t give up anything, but you will ruin the shoes you bought a few days ago and get your clothes wet and dirty. And you will surely be late for work, after all, you will have to hand the child over to the person responsible for it and change clothes. What to do?” Most of us are always convinced they would have saved a drowning child. But why do we not notice those people who need another kind of help?

Peter Singer presents a logical argument that leads to the conclusion that we should help people: suffering and death caused by lack of food, housing, and medical care, are evils; if we can prevent evils without risking that the same or almost the same sins will happen to us, it is wrong not to do so; by supporting charities, we can prevent evils — suffering and death caused by lack of food, housing, and medical care — without risking that the same or almost the same sins will reach us. So from the above, we conclude that we are doing wrong if we don’t support charities.

Although viewed from another angle, it can be said that when we have earned money with our work, we have the right to decide what to do with it and how we will spend it. In addition, it can be assumed that spending the rest of one’s money to help strangers will result in a lack of encouragement to achieve professional success, earn more money, etc. So I think we can donate at least a small part of our money, the absence of which will not affect our future.

If we’re talking about Peter Singer and his initiative, you can read about his foundation and donate here: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/.
However, even helping a neighbor in our country, our neighbor, etc., will improve this world, and we will be more caring and filled with goodness.

You have a crisis. It can be anything: loss of a job, breakup of a relationship, another situation in which you are faced with the impossibility of realizing your life purpose.

Your life path seems unproductive. You are gripped by the fear of future troubles. It seems that everything will forever remain as negative as it is now.

But this is only the first reaction to changes in life for which you were not ready.

The more time passes, the more you grow in this crisis and soon you will come out of this negative state as a new, improved personality.

After all, any crisis ends. And your crisis is no exception — it cannot last forever.

It is important to take advantage of the crisis to gain new knowledge about yourself and the world, get motivation and push to achieve higher goals and make your life better than it was before the crisis.

Based on my own experience, I offer the following ways of going through a crisis that will make your future better:

1. Don’t hold back your emotions.

For the first week, actively give yourself over to your emotions. It is important to let difficult emotions come out. During this time, do not demand extraordinary firmness and sober thinking from yourself. Allow yourself to be weak, sad, show self-pity.

At the initial stage of the crisis situation do not be afraid to ask for help from people close to you or people you trust. It is very important to have someone to talk to, to tell about all your fears, all your complaints, to express all your anger. The more you speak out, the faster you will feel better.

If you feel you don’t have enough people to express your emotions, you can talk to a psychologist. He will listen to you with an open mind and guide your thoughts in the right direction.

Another good way to get your emotions out is to write all your emotions, feelings, thoughts and fears in a journal.

2. Don’t ignore the crisis

After the first emotional week, you have to face the truth.

Soberly assess what happened, how it affected your life, your goals.

The sooner you do that, the sooner you can move on.

3. Don’t exaggerate the crisis.

You are not alone in the world facing a crisis. Plenty of people to you have faced a similar or worse problem.

It is important to find stories of people who have had a similar experience, survived it, and come out of the crisis.

4. Be focused on a productive exit from the crisis.

Keeping in mind the difficult periods of your life, you should have a goal of gradually dealing with them.

It will not happen instantly. But you must have a goal (to come out of the crisis better than you were before the crisis). In small steps you will go exactly to this goal and you will achieve it.

With a productive attitude toward crisis, you will understand that crisis is not only suffering, but also great opportunities and unexpected prospects for your own life.

5. Find your hidden reserves of optimism.

People like to say, “Everything that happens, becomes for the better”.

When you are in a crisis situation, this phrase is perceived with pessimism. However, in the future you will see that this phrase is true.

6. Take action.

Improve yourselves. Do things you’ve been putting off for a long time. Do things that give you pleasure. Do what you’ve always been afraid to do.

You will have new opportunities. Earlier you did not pay attention to them, you did not look at them from the same perspective as now. And now you have changed and your perception has changed. You have gone beyond the walls and have seen new horizons.

In times of crisis, activity helps you get out of a bad mood and apathy. At the same time, if you feel aggression, it can become your motor.

Action will be the final stage of a productive exit from a crisis. Action will bring you quick results.

A life crisis is a transitional period of life characterized by a breakdown and active change in the roles of the individual, the boundary between old and new experiences, a qualitative transition from one state to another, a change in the direction of the path of life.

Growth is always accompanied by pain. And the faster it grows, the more painful it is.

So remember that dealing with a crisis is a sign of your growth.