The “WHY” behind Comfort Zone Shake-Up

The “WHY” behind the Comfort Zone Shake-Up.

Simon Sinek—author, motivational speaker, and organizational consultant—doesn’t know it, but he has had a serious impact on my Comfort Zone Shake-Up project. The “Start With Why” approach is deeply inspiring and, if you’ve read his work, you will recognize the “Golden Circle” framework at work here.

If you are here—even if you’re unfamiliar with Simon—I can guess you can have questions such as:

“What’s your purpose?

What’s your cause?

What’s your belief?

Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

And why should anyone care?”

My name is Federica Cascia, and I created Comfort Zone Shake-Up because I strongly believe in the power of learning and improving. I believe in the ability of each of us to shape our lives.

If I look back, it is a conviction I’ve always had and which has shaped my entire life. If you’re interested in learning more about my life, check out the My Story Episodes.

The idea of sharing the belief in the power of personal growth and my own version of how to do that was ultimately born when I moved to New York.

Moving to New York

Moving to New York had a huge impact on my life, my habits, who I was, and who I am. I like to say that I experienced a “cognitive blackout”—which is an exaggerated way of saying that I was completely out of my Comfort Zone.

It was my choice to move to New York. It was something I wanted so much. So why was I unable to be the same “Fede” as I was back in Italy? What was wrong with me? It was a big change, but after all it was a big, planned change.

I started thinking, “If I am having trouble managing something I chose, I don’t want to even imagine what will happen when I have to face the unexpected.”

Change

Change is such a beast. Change is complex to manage. Change is almost always painful. I thought I was good at managing and embracing it. So I started thinking,

“I wish I could master change.”

I continued asking myself:

“How to master change?

How to take more control of our lives?

How to avoid “cognitive blackout” situations?

How do we work?

What’s behind our beliefs, behaviors, and habits?”

I work in technology. How does technology support us? When is technology an enabler, and when does it hold us back?

My Journey

With all these questions, the quest to understand the mechanisms underneath our lives—and to use them to improve our lives—began. This is when I started looking at the challenge from a different angle. I looked at it from an angle I believe in: the angle of personal growth.

So I decided to rephrase my goal:

“I wish I could constantly learn, improve and grow.”

“What’s the best way to grow and improve the quality of our lives?”

And Comfort Zone Shake-Up was born.

I did not want to talk about being IN or OUT of our Comfort Zone. While I like the inspirational part of encouraging people to move out of this zone, doing so is not always actionable. It was time to shake up the traditional concept of the Comfort Zone. It’s time to think of EXPANDING the Comfort Zone.

This is why I prefer to say:

“Life begins INSIDE the Comfort Zone.”

I believe that we all have the ability—I would go so far as to say the responsibility—to shape our lives. And we can do that every single day.

I am dreamer. I want to encourage self-love, self-care, and the inspiration to be the absolute best version of ourselves.

This is my “WHY.”

It guides the “HOW.”

And this is “WHAT” I do here.

As Benjamin Franklin said:

“There are three sorts of people in the world: those who are immovable, people who don’t get it, or don’t want to do anything about it. There are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it. And there are people who move, people who make things happen.”

What about you? Are you ready to shake up your Comfort Zone? What are you waiting for?