New adventure? How Exciting!

I came across clip on TikTok yesterday and it was drawn from the ending scene of Night at the Museum 3.

In it a character is told “It’s time for your next adventure!” and another replies, “I have no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow”. Then a third person says, “How exciting!”

At first I thought, how can not knowing be something exciting?

But I kept returning to it realizing that, so often, we in fact are prisoners of our comfort zones. We cling to familiarity even when it’s no good for us. Stepping into uncertainty feels too daunting and scary. I know that firsthand. For years I kept myself in a safe, predictable space. My nervous system told me - hey, this is where we have been for a decade. Stay here! Whats the harm?

The interesting thing about comfort zones is that we often mistake them for peace. We tell ourselves we are safe here, because everything is familiar. We know what to expect most of the times, since we have lived through it hundreds of occasions by now.

Familiarity isn’t always the same as happiness.

I realize that every time I let that fear of unknown dictate my choices, I am keeping my own adventure on pause. And so, I choose to choose differently.

Is this really comfort or is it just what my brain has learned to survive? Question I have wondered in the most uncomfortable times in my life. Abusive relationships, toxicity and absolutely disliking my environment.

Our brains are not trying to make us happy. They are trying to keep us safe and alive. If something has been familiar for years and years, brain assumes it’s safe, even when it isn’t helping us grow anymore.

Almost every time I have done something that genuinely scared me, I have looked back afterwards and wondered, what was I so afraid of?!

The only comfort worth building is the one you carry inside yourself.

Whenever you go, you take yourself with you. You take your thoughts, fears, beliefs, creativity and resilience. If your sense of safety depends entirely on what is happening around you.. every change will feel like a threat. But if your safety comes from within, change starts to feel less like something happening to you and more like something you are capable of moving through. Its not “to you”, it is “for you”.

Choose to believe that even if you don’t have a plan for tomorrow, that uncertainty is not a threat to you. Because, it really isn’t. Every single choice I made with fear, worked out at the end. Maybe not so perfectly as I was micromanaging it in my head, but it worked out. Nothing happened. No one died. No one got hurt.

I am not completely there yet. I still catch myself wanting to plan everything and micromanage in my little corner I have build. I still want to know what is coming next before I take the first step. Planning has always meant safety for me. And yes, fear never will disappear from my life. Brain wants me to be safe and that’s what it does in order to protect me. But I don’t let it make every decision for me anymore.

I truly invite you to listen what your mind are telling you. When the fear interrupts and whispers “Hey, stay safe! Dont move!”, you only listen to the part of you that says “How exciting it is. New adventure is waiting for me. Here I go!”

-Payton