In today's bonus episode of Join Up Dots, your host David Ralph shares something deeply personal that he should have got dealt with years ago, but was scared to do it. Finally making an appointment at the hospital for an issue that has caused him distress and discomfort for far longer than it should have, he realised that he was trapped within the comfort zone. That zone where dreams die. Adventure shrivels. And experiences are never gained. He was scared to confront something that was out of the normal experiences that he dealt with everyday. Preferring to ignore it until it become something that he couldn't ignore it anymore. But why do we do this? Why do we all crave the life of our dreams, where excitement wakes us up everyday with a cheery eagerness, but instead prefer to be greeted by the cold hand of boredom and frustration instead. Its quite simply that as human beings we like nothing more than routine. We don't like to be scared, or feel apprehension and discomfort. But actually being brave and attempting new things, feeling frightened and full of adrenaline, is what keeps us young and feeling good about ourselves. It doesn't have to be big like tying a bungee chord to your office window and leaping out, but just speaking up when normally you might have stayed quiet. It might be going into a bookshop and choosing a totally random book to what you would normally reach out for. Just stuff that is different. We impose a lot of restrictions on ourselves that keep us small. Stopping us believing in the impossible. And by stepping out of our comfort zone in small ways, we actually build up our confidence to tackle the big things. And in big thing land is where our dreams start becoming real.