Comfort zone

I'll start my first blog post with a short anecdote that left a lasting impression on me. In my college days, we had an activity in soft skills class where we had to give a speech based on an image. I ended up selecting the below image.

My interpretation of the image is that crocodile was waiting for things to fall into place rather than set things in motion. But, by the time, things happened, it wasn't alive to experience it. I still have a snippet that I prepared for this speech. I'm pasting it as such here below:

Everyone of us has our own dreams or goals. However, very few people actually end up achieve originally intended dream. Majority of us would prefer to stay in their comfort zone and don't push themselves beyond a point. Why do they do it?
If you watch a group of kids, there’s never a shortage of leaders. Kids are inquisitive, and curious, and willing to be different just for the sake of being interesting. Anyone who’s tried to convince a toddler to behave in public knows how much kids care about “fitting in” among the group. And kids aren’t shy about putting forth any ideas or thoughts that occur to them.
But then somewhere along the line it became safer to keep these ideas to ourselves rather than putting it out.
At some point we realized that to bring our best work is to expose our true self and be willing to see that we’re not as good, or as talented, or as strong as we hope we are.
So we wait. We wait for the time that we’ll no longer be vulnerable. We wait until we’ve perfected our craft to the point that no one could criticize or disagree with us.
Except this day never comes. So we keep waiting.
Most of us wait for the right opportunity to come.
We wait for an opportunity to be offered a better position or a better job or opportunity to make more money.
We wait for the right partner
Sometimes it comes, sometimes it won't.
It might not come at the right time
We might not recognize it
We might not be ready for it
When it eventually appears, we might not be interested in it anymore.
Often, it is not a matter of creating them, but becoming aware of them. Often, they are there all the time, in front of us, but we do not recognize them. Seeing them and recognizing them requires a change of your mindset.
When you want something very strongly, and focus on it, things start happening. There is no magic here, just plain mental and emotional laws at work.
If we let confidence drive our decision to step forward, we’ll only lead in situations where we’ve already proven ourselves. If we’re looking for confidence, it’s no wonder we hold back when we’re in a new situation. We’ve never given ourselves a chance to develop any.
So the answer can’t be confidence. It needs to be courage. We need courage to take that uncertain first step.
Because that first step will always be uncertain. No amount of confidence will give us the security that it will turn out alright. We need to decide if we want this badly enough to risk that.

My speech that day was well-received, but I couldn't help but feel contradictory in real life. I usually won't endorse things that I myself don't follow or believe in. That thought lingered in my mind for a long time. But I had other priorities in my college days, that it had to wait...

But fast forward to present, I'm grateful for the independence and financial freedom that my first job gave me. It allowed me to seek out new experiences and challenges, which in turn boosted my self-esteem in ways I didn't know were possible. I still have some ambitious goals that I want to achieve, even though I don't have all the skills and knowledge I need yet.
But I'm optimistic about the future as I work towards my goals...🤞