farmdoc's blog post number 477

Wikipedia defines the comfort zone as a neutral anxiety behavioural state resulting in a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk. I live my life almost if not totally within my comfort zone. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I suspect the latter – at least from the viewpoint of maximising brain function and plasticity. But I know from long experience I don’t handle stress well. Staying in my comfort zone’s one way of minimising stress. Maybe because – or in spite – of this, I’m fascinated by those who live well outside their comfort zone. And so to the latest film I’ve seen and the latest book I’ve read. The book is Dead Lucky – Life After Death on Mount Everest. It’s a true account by Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall (pictured) of his 1996 Everest climb. A short time into his descent after summiting, he developed cerebral oedema and was given up for dead. After a night at 8,600 metres without oxygen, he was found alive the next morning. He’s the first person to survive a night in the open in Everest’s ‘death zone’. The film is The Devil at Your Heels – a 1981 documentary chronicling the 1976-9 attempt of daredevil stuntman Ken Carter to jump a rocket-powered car over the Saint-Laurence Seaway – a distance of one mile. In the end, he doesn’t do it – seemingly because he lost his nerve. I was enthralled by both book and film. I envy Hall and Carter their bravery – from well inside my comfort zone. Ho hum.