What causes people to repel against the most natural thing in life – to grow and develop? What causes people to surrender the very thing that makes them uniquely human – their ability to adapt, change and invent?
I believe this article provides a compelling reason
One of the reasons so many surrender to the multiple lures of stagnation, is its familiarity. Former Executive and President of Hewlett-Packard Co. Carly Fiorina succinctly outlined the seductive danger of comfort zones in the following illustration about “querencia”.
“In bullfighting” she writes, “there is a term called querencia. The querencia is the spot in the ring to which the bull returns. Each bull has a different querencia, but as the bullfight continues, and the animal becomes more threatened, it returns more and more often to his spot. As he returns to his querencia, he becomes more predictable. And so, in the end, the matador is able to kill the bull because instead of trying something new, the bull returns to what is familiar, his comfort zone”.
Where do you or I return when we feel threatened? Where is our “querencia”? Chances are wherever that place may be is the same place that holds the greatest threat to our growth and development. Querencia’s are not built to advance us but to comfort us. They are not constructed to make us think, dream, dare and change, but they are places of retirement, familiarity and predictability. Tragically like the bull, the more predictable and comfortable we become the easier it is for the matador’s of life to kill us.
To kill every dream, dismantle every vision and terminate every aspiration we possess to become more than we are. When that happens LIFE , real LIFE as it was always intended to be lived, becomes extinct. We each need an element of chaos in our lives, an element that leaves us in anticipation of a surprise.!
July 27, 2007
Causes of stagnation
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2 comments:
That is an awesome article mate. its one of my biggest struggles!
As the saying goes... your biggest danger is your last success!
Very very intriguing - had never come across stagnation described so accurately before! I wonder if it is possible to use even the idea of comfort spots to our advantage though and not just see them as a death pit to avoid? For example making our comfort spot prayer or bible reading or meditation so that in those times when we ARE threatened and at a low point - which will always come throughout our lives - we go back to God and enable him to provide the surprise and the chaos within that comfort spot that will sustain us?
Just a thought =)
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