Most people do not achieve what they know they are capable of achieving. Most people go the majority of their lives using only a small part of the vast pool of potential buried within themselves. Nothing worth speaking about ever came from the confines of ones comfort zone. I say confines, because a comfort zone is a prison of sorts. When you are in prison, you are limited in what you are able to do. You cannot do as you please. Living within your comfort zone restricts what you can do, in the same way that a prisons wall do. To venture outside of your comfort zone, is to step out into freedom. Sometimes freedom is scary. Some prisoners commit crimes after they are released because life in the real world scares them, and they would rather go back to what they are used to, prison. In much the same way, when most of us venture into freedom, we find it scary, and so we commit a crime against ourselves and run back to our comfort zones.
People fear (again myself included) standing out in the crowd
If you take a closer look at the fear of standing out, you will discover that standing out is not what we fear. Think about it. What specifically is it about standing out that cause that anxiety to surface? More often than not, the fear of standing out (and in fact many fears) are just the fear of the unknown in disguise. If you fear standing out from others, it is not the standing out that causes you to feel afraid, but rather, it could be that you are worried about what other people may say to you or about you, or how people will treat you differently, or it could be something else, but there will be an unknown that is the true source of that fear.
If you think about it, it is kind of silly to spend your life swimming in mediocrity, only so you can go to war with the great majority of people who, just like you, committed themselves to being comfortable, instead of uncovering the truth about what the route cause of your fear is, or learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I hope your daughter gets well soon. I shall hold her in my heart as I pray tonight.
I see it the same way, a self-imposed prison with bars of culture, religion, society and whoever else's expectations we try to live by.
Fear of judgement, not being accepted, rejected, ridiculed... the list goes on but, all fears lead back to the one point.
Thanks, I enjoyed reading this :)