Have you ever read the novel Hatchet? Written by Gary Paulsen, Hatchet is a survival story about a thirteen-year old boy named Brian whose plane crashed in a lake in the Canadian wilderness. Brian survived, but the pilot did not. Brian had to survive alone in the unknown wilderness for an unknown period of time. When Brian recovers from the crash, he climbs out of the lake and begins analyzing his situation. He found he had matches, cooking equipment, multiple packs of freeze dried food, and a hatchet. He also had a radio, though he didn’t understand how it worked. He found a place where he could build a shelter and where there were edible berries. Brian had to overcome the challenges of finding food and water, creating warmth, fending off wild animals, and lasting through severe weather. Survival was not easy. After 54 days, Brian discovered how to turn on the emergency radio transmitter. Soon a plane flying overhead saw the signal and landed to rescue Brian.
Hatchet is a story of a common city boy that transformed
into a survivalist in a matter of days. Brian didn’t intend to be a
survivalist. The experience was forced upon him. When the plane crashed, Brian
had a choice: he would either live or die. He had nobody around him to help him
make the decision. He had no cell phone or internet to check the pros and cons.
It would have probably been a lot easier to die. Survival is hard, certainly
uncomfortable, especially in a treacherous environment. Nevertheless, he made
the decision to survive. Brian took the road less traveled. Brian was going to
fight to survive.
The Three Zones of Living
One of my all-time favorite quotes is by author Neale Donald
Walsch. He said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
There are three zones of living: the comfort zone, the stretch
zone, and the panic zone.
The comfort zone is the zone of reflection. It’s a state of relaxation and peace. It’s
what I like to call “Point 0” living. It’s also a place where action is limited
and excitement wanes. It’s where things are familiar and easy to do. Adjectives
to describe this zone are secure, stable, lifeless, bored, comfortable, safe,
unchallenged, and easy. Spending too much time in your comfort zone kills
motivation and shrinks your potential. In
my mid-twenties I spent much of my time in the comfort zone. I had experienced
a major heartbreak in 2010 and it sent me spiraling down into a depression for
four months. I had no desire to risk experiencing that hurt again, so I pulled
back from emotionally attaching to anything or anyone. Instead, I spend the next
few years reflecting on my life and what I wanted to do. It was a peaceful
time. I never experienced suffering during these years. Nevertheless, I soon
felt stalled in my life. I wasn’t going anywhere. It was only through traveling
to new countries and unknown places that I was able to experience immense
excitement. It wasn’t until I made the decision to join the Peace Corps and
leave home for a year that I broke from this “Point 0” and began to feel completely
alive again. It was in Mongolia that I made a decision to start spending more
time in the stretch zone.
The stretch zone is the zone of growth. It’s a zone of action and excitement. It’s
where change happens. The activities in this zone challenge you without
overwhelming you. Adjectives to describe this zone are excited, challenged, willing
to take risk, alive, and exhilarated. In his book 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell talks about the “Law of
the Rubber Band.” In this law Maxwell compares human lives to a rubber band.
The purpose of a rubber band is to stretch. It’s through stretching that the
rubber band proves most effective. If a rubber band is not stretched, however,
it loses its potential and doesn’t serve its purpose. This is similar to our
lives. We each have a God-given purpose
in this world, and in order to fulfill that purpose we must grow to our full
potential. In order to do this we must spend time in our stretch zone. If we just stay in our comfort zone,
however, we’re working just as ineffectively as that idle rubber band. We must
therefore stretch ourselves to become the most effective.
Now if
you stretch a rubber band too far, what will happen? It will break! This is
what happens to us when we enter the panic
zone. The panic zone is the
zone of stress. It’s the zone where
fear stops all action or the action creates disastrous results. It’s where
tasks are too daunting or conflict with our values. When we enter this zone, we
have the potential to break. My dad used to tell me to not “put too many irons
in the fire.” I have a tendency to want to do many things. I want to get my
Master’s degree. I want to do more concerts with our band. I want to write a
book and create a curriculum. I want to get married and take care of my family.
I want to build a house. I want to travel the world. The more I delve into a
collection of these areas, the more stressful my life becomes. The more
stressed out I get the more exhausted and irritable I become, and I also find
myself in the same “Point 0” immobile state of the comfort zone, only this is
more frustrating. These negative emotions often drive my immune system down,
and as a result I get sick and am in bed for days. This is what happens when
you spend a lot of time in the panic zone. The high stretching and
over-exhaustion does more damage than good. Adjectives to describe this zone
are fearful, tense, exhausted, fed up, tired, frustrated, annoyed, and anxious.
A Stretch-Zone Solution: Courage
As I’ve talked about in my previous blog post, all of us
have irrational fears that prevent us from moving forward and growing. One of
those fears listed was fear of the
unknown. In order to conquer this fear you must have courage. While fear of the unknown is a master at keeping us where
we are, courage is the engine that keeps us stretching. The fear of the unknown
thrives on comfort and normality. Courage says, “Bring on the unknown!” In
order to move forward and grow to our full potential we must have the courage
to stretch beyond where we are and into unfamiliar territory.
Life expectancy in 2015 averaged 78.9 years. The female
average is 81.3 years and men are slightly lower at 76.5 years. Just to work
with an easier number, we’re going to round the average lifespan to 80 years.
Now, I want to give you a visual representation that hopefully motivates you to
grow your courage. Below is a 10 x 8 graph of eighty squares, each square
representing a year in your life. If you can, draw your own 10 x 8 graph. Then
I want you to fill in as many squares as your age (ex. If you’re 28, shade in
28 squares).
Take a look at your graph. How does it make you feel? When I
marked my graph I noticed more than a third of it shaded. It freaked me out.
Have I really lived a third of my life already at 30? I feel young, yet looking
at the graph created some difficult feelings for me. It also motivated me to
start focusing on all the blank squares- the years I have left.
So how can you stretch to your full potential with the years
you have left? I have found that bucket
lists are a great visual way to operate in the stretch zone and grow
yourself. They help give you
direction, focus and purpose. It’s fun to do them individually. It’s also fun
to create one with a partner in crime. The more you talk about your bucket
list, the more effective it becomes. Telling your friends and family about your
list inspires you to act. There are so many different ideas on the Internet. I
came across two YouTube videos this week that featured two young gentlemen, one
named Travis Bell (“Life’s Way too Short Not to Live Your Bucket List”) and
another named Ben Nemtin (“Six Steps for Crossing Anything off Your Bucket List”).
Both of these men have inspired countless individuals in developing personal
bucket lists. Bell gave an acronym for helping generate different ideas to
include in your bucket list. Taking his list, I revised it using the acronym
STRECHNOW.
S- Satisfy a curiosity.
T- Take lessons
R- Rewarding relationships
E- Express yourself
T- Tough challenges
C- Conquer a fear
H- Heart acts
N- New travel adventures
O- Outstanding achievements
W- Wealthy legacy
Use the STRETCHNOW acronym to help you develop your own bucket
list. I would love to hear about the top items on your bucket list! Just leave
a comment with three things you would love to do to expand yourself.
I encourage you to start investing time in your stretch zone. It is through this courage
that you will continue growing towards your potential.
Quotes about
Courage
If you put yourself
in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are
forced to expand your consciousness.
Les Brown
Respect yourself
enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or
makes you happy.
Robert Tew
The first trip of the
Pony Express was made in ten days- an average of two hundred miles a day. But
we soon began stretching our riders and making better time.
Buffalo Bill
If we’re growing, we’re
always going to be out of our comfort zone.
John Maxwell
Life begins at the
end of your comfort zone.
Neale Donald Walsch
In this world you’re
either growing or you’re dying, so get in motion and grow.
Lou Holtz
Every moment of one’s
existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.
Norman Mailer
A ship in a harbor is
safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.
Unknown
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