There are times, no matter how curious we are about an adventure, a relationship, a new food, or a business venture, that we find ourselves holding back. Our comfort zone is so alluring. It’s often perceived as safe. And yet, that safety is often an illusion. We believe it’s best to stick with what is known rather than step out into the unknown. Sometimes that’s fine, especially if we’re guilty of running after the next shiny object.

I find, however, that when curiosity about a specific opportunity sticks with me, I’m meant to lean into it and see where it leads. It doesn’t require an all-out commitment at first, but it does require exploration, of taking the next step in uncovering what is calling to me.

That often requires looking at any resistance I might have to step outside of my comfort zone. Many times, this is experienced as fear.

Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, says, “Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore, the more we fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.”

And when we’re growing, we’re usually happier.

“Truly happy people seem to have an intuitive grasp of the fact that sustained happiness is not just about doing things that you like. It also requires growth and adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone. Happy people are, simply put, curious,” says Robert Biswas-Diener and Todd B. Kashdan in the Psychology Today article “What Happy People Do Differently.”

Yet, modern life keeps us safe and insulated from a desire to take risks. We’ve grown accustomed to our connectivity and our routines. The noise of our lives drowns out that desire to be curious and explore.

Laurie Seymour, the founder of The Baca Institute, who works with entrepreneurs and thought leaders to help them achieve higher levels of personal and professional success, says that once the call has been acknowledged, it can become quite painful not to take a step toward heeding it.

“If we’re really meant to do something, that call keeps coming stronger and stronger and stronger,” she explains. “Our will can be strong, and we can deny it. Life will go in another direction. However, my experience with that is we always have a feeling of missing something. We missed our timing.”

Laurie views committing to a calling as the first step of a dance. Dancing requires that we listen to the tune of the music and move accordingly, and to do that, we need to be flexible.

So, when looking at your health, your business, and your relationships:

Where might you be playing it safe?
Where are you allowing fear to keep you from “adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone?”
How is resistance ruling your life?

Here’s what I know: I’m more alive, fulfilled, and happy when I’ve taken risks and explored different reaches of the earth and depths of myself. And I know, I’m not alone.