You don't always have to play it safe. A few months ago I wrote about this same idea - how Growth Happens in Discomfort. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that discomfort shows up in almost every area of life: programming, hardware, business, relationships, fitness - even the final frontier. So today's post is a sequel with fresh examples, because this lesson is too important (and too universal) to leave as a one-off.

And just to be clear - I'm not talking about being comfortable in your own home, in your bed, or like a hobbit tucked happily into his hobbit hole. I'm talking about comfort zones when it comes to life experience. It's easy to stay where you're comfortable, but the real growth happens when you step into the unknown. And I'm not talking about being needlessly reckless either - don't drive without a seatbelt or bet your life savings on green. The point is to take smart risks that stretch you, not stupid ones that end you.

In programming or Access development, this is especially true. You don't learn much by building the same query or form a hundred times. Growth comes from trying something new - learning SQL joins, tackling VBA, or normalizing tables in ways that feel awkward at first. That discomfort is the price of leveling up your skills. I've said it many times in my videos: I grew up writing BASIC on a TRS-80 CoCo when I was eight, learning loops like FOR and WHILE. When I first started working with databases, I thought, "I got this - recordsets are amazing." And they are, but compared to a well-written SQL statement, recordsets are slow. Once I learned that, a whole new world opened up.

It's the same with hardware. People cling to what feels familiar - an old beige box, a trusty CRT, or the machine that's "always worked." I felt that myself when IBM PCs started taking over. I was perfectly happy with my CoCo, and I had zero interest in moving to the strange new world of MS-DOS. But after a few years, the CoCo just couldn't keep up, and I had no choice but to upgrade. Once I did, the CoCo became pure nostalgia by comparison. Same thing later with my beloved Motorola Sidekick. I couldn't imagine giving up that physical keyboard - how could anyone type on a touchscreen? But once I adapted, and then voice recognition came along, I realized growth was waiting outside my comfort zone the whole time.

Even in business, growth usually means taking a calculated risk. Launching a product, investing in training, pivoting a service line - none of it feels "safe." But without that push, companies stagnate. My own business is basically a history of leaving my comfort zone. I started with what I knew: computer sales and service. I could build machines, fix them, work under the hood, and handle the software. Then clients started asking for inventory systems or alternatives to QuickBooks, so I pivoted into building databases. Soon they were asking, "Who's going to teach us how to use this?" - so I pivoted again, this time into training. When the internet came along, I pivoted once more into online training. Flexibility is survival in business. That's why so many giant corporations struggle - they're too rigid to meet changing demands, while small operators like me adapt or die.

In life and relationships, growth comes from stepping off the well-worn path. Travel somewhere you wouldn't normally go, strike up a conversation with someone outside your usual circle, or even just try a restaurant you'd normally skip. You might surprise yourself. I still remember when my lawyer first introduced me to sushi back when I was in my early twenties. It wasn't anywhere near as popular then as it is today, and some of the things he ordered didn't appeal to me at all. But the moment I tasted my first salmon roll, I was hooked. Experiences like that remind me the world is bigger than my backyard, and you only find new favorites by leaving your comfort zone.

In fitness, the principle couldn't be clearer. Muscles grow because they're pushed past comfort. Try an exercise you've never done before, even if it humbles you at first. Or change the way you do the ones you already know - on the bench press, switch to a narrow grip, a wide grip, incline, or decline. Swap the barbell for dumbbells and keep those muscles guessing. Start slow, avoid injury, but keep expanding your boundaries.

And of course, Star Trek has always preached this lesson. The entire mission of the Enterprise was "to boldly go where no one has gone before." That's not a comfort zone, that's a mandate to explore the unknown. Ships are safest in harbor, but that's not what ships were built for - and it's certainly not what starships were built for. Growth means taking the risk anyway, because staying comfortable means staying stuck. Engage!

LLAP
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