Sometimes, defining what a comfortable prison is for oneself can be hard within the intersection of their mind and emotions.
I think we can always reason with ourselves, usually with weak excuses why we ought to be comfortable with xyz even though deep down the voice of the self is making it clear that we're drifting towards complacency, one where we've stopped growing or challenging ourselves.
I guess freewill in this sense, is a messy business. You can know what the right thing to do is and still not do it, yet. I think at the end of the day, the right thing will always be done, either directly or indirectly.
For example, say the right thing to do is exercise every day or every other day. My mind comes with a myriad of excuses to not exercise on any given day.
This continues for some time and I seemingly get away with it until I receive a health scare that forces me to exercise regularly, diligently and without exception.
I could've just started earlier.
Yes, that's what we tell ourselves anytime the tables turn out of our favor. It seems to me as though the path of least resistance always collects its debt eventually.
Here, the right thing was enforced via external forces, given that I failed to enforce it myself.
Ten years later
But there are more insidious examples, ones where the consequences don't show up for years.
A common and relatable example here is staying in a job that slowly drains you. Day by day operations are bearable. We tell ourselves the money is good, or that all jobs are like this, or we will make a change soon, once the stars align perfectly.
Along the way, that quiet voice inside keeps suggesting you're capable of more and trading your potential for comfort. But because there's no immediate crisis of sorts, that quiet voice keeps getting muted again and again.
Then one day, usually five or ten years later, you look back and realize you've become someone you don't recognize.
How it hits that realization is always brutal.
The crisis finally arrives and comes crashing down similar to that health scare. The difference being it's not a heart attack you can recover from in months. It's a decade of your life you can't get back, a version of yourself you'll probably never meet.
A comfortable prison doesn't always announce itself with locked doors, especially as time passes and the bars become invisible.
It just keeps us busy enough, with comfort as the warden we willingly obey.
Again, the right thing always gets done eventually, yes, but indirectly it costs you years of your life.
And unlike a health scare that forces immediate change, these more insidious betrayals of self are harder to spot and fix in real time, which does leave scars that take far longer to heal.
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