“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” — Neale Donald Walsch
Rain trickled down the warm Melbourne evening as I said goodbye to an old friend. Last time we met I had just moved to this most liveable city about 4-5 years ago, who knows when we’ll see each other again. Our paths crossed for the first time in Ubud when we were both young, wild and free. Each of us are married now and he has two children. So, he is one level ahead of me, as he puts it that having a child is like ‘naik kelas’ (=going to the next grade) in our school of life. It’s a real hard work but the experience humbled him. The children reminds him how to be human, to have compassion and to test his tolerance limit :p
He recently moved out of Ubud to live in the polluted and traffic heavy Jakarta metropolutan. Why??? I asked. He said so he can get life lessons from the ‘fuckers’ (his word) who dwell in the big city. Life in Ubud was too damn comfortable. Then he recited a quote that he’ve heard and lived by: “You are dead when you’re comfortable.”
That hits home to me. It was the same reason why I left my dream job and Ubud about 6-7 years ago. Yup – a dream job. Growing up I’d hear it from teachers and parents to finish my school and fullfil my ‘cita-cita’ (=aspiration). But nothing prepared me to what happened after I reached my dream at the age of 24. After some (very exciting) time, the dream job turned into any other job when there’s nothing more I could learn from and there’s nothing more I could add to. It was time to leave.
I tried to find the quote when I got home from meeting my friend and I came across this beautiful quote by Neale Donald Walsch:
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”
It’s a great reminder on how I get to be where I am today and for moving forward.