Leaving the Comfort Zone 🛋️

Two days ago, after a decade of reliable service, my TV broke down. The screen started flickering and it flickered some more and suddenly it turned completely black, while I could still here sound. To be honest, I have been wondering for some years now when the day would eventually come. I mean, it's been nine years. Isn't that quite long for a technical device in times of planned obsolescence?

But of course, my first sentiment was that this isn't over. I did what any sensible TV owner would do: I tried to fix it. When the prominent remedy of turning it off and on again didn't do its typical magic, I've watched this infamous troubleshooting video of this guy ruling out every potential issue my TV could have ran into that apparently tens of thousands TV owners like me had turned to in despair. The dedication and knowledge of this guy, although with a weary expression on his face, left me impressed and slightly amused. Never would I have thought that I would find myself in a situation where I had to understand the inner workings of my telly, but now more than ever, it needed me. And isn't me spending an hour trying to understand how to fix it the least I could do for it, in return for years of unconditional screening of entertainment television?

Although I was convinced that with the power of this guy's (aka Tim Daniels) instructions I would be able to fix the issue, from the very moment the unfortunate flickering appeared, I could sense a strange feeling. I felt like this was meant to happen. I took a good look at myself and the kind of person I had become over the past half year. I became someone, who couldn't even have a meal without the presence of the telly. Someone, who would easily spend 2-3 hours every day in front of it instead of doing anything remotely useful.

Then, the words of my friend Nga from the other day popped into my head:

The real world happens outside of your comfort zone.

That's when I realised, that my TV created the perfect conditions for me to be in said comfort zone. I knew right away when she said it, that it was finally time to change something. To finally take the necessary steps and get out of there and leave this comfortable world of 90s sitcoms behind me that I had immersed myself in for the past six months. With so much of my time chipped away by the mighty TV, how would I ever call the plumber to finally get our bathroom sink unclogged? How would I spend more time with friends again, plan my summer and future trips, figure out a master career plan that allows me to work remotely, get a scooter driving licence, work through my notes and wonderful ideas I wrote down during my trip, clean out the office cabinet, pick up a sports routine, migrate the last apps from my old phone and finally get down to writing more on this blog? This all sounds dreadfully annoying right now. But I know that in the long run it would make me feel so much better.

It took me longer than I would care to admit to disassemble my TV set, mostly because there were more than a dozen screws and as usual I only realised at the penultimate one that I should have used the battery-powered screwdriver. I removed layers of dust that accumulated after years of operation, I reattached the cables, as instructed by the optimistic Tim Daniels. However, in the end, my efforts were fruitless. The telly's time had come.

But damn it, so has mine. Not the time to stop operating. But the time to finally leave the comfort zone.