Comfort Zone

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Copyright 1998 - 2009

What is your comfort zone?

Are you restricted by your mental view of yourself and your perceived limitations? If so you probably need to step outside your comfort zone. Here are some ideas on how.

Comfort Zone

If you lookup the word comfort in The Concise Oxford Dictionary you will find various words and phrases to describe what it means. In the context of this article I am using the phrase from the dictionary things that make life easy. Similarly when I look at the various options for zone I use the phrase region between specified limits of depth.

If we put the two together we can think of comfort zone as a set of behaviours and environments in which a person operates to make life easy. That is the element of risk is eliminated as far as possible. I have deliberately dropped the word specified because I am not convinced that an individual is often aware of what their real comfort zone is.

Over time we all develop habits and activities that we feel comfortable with but some of them creep up on us and become constricting. Unknown to ourselves they then trap us in the comfort zone. People grow and develop by stepping outside their comfort zone and thereby gaining new insights and knowledge as well as new skills. An individual may well feel safe in their comfort zone but in fact the longer that they stay in this mental state then the less equipped they will become at dealing with the wider world.

Research indicates that when people operate purely within their comfort zone then nothing will change.

What always happens will, on the whole, continue to happen. So if you want change to occur or to learn something new, you need to operate outside your comfort zone.

In summary the comfort zone is the area within which you feel most at ease. Been there, seen and done that, got the T shirt etc, etc.

What can I do to change?

To fulfil your potential you must experience new challenges and learn from them. The following will give you some ideas which are mainly around work.

• However try to think of similar projects or tasks that you could take on in your private life to challenge yourself and take you out of that comfort zone. Please do not worry about making mistakes. People who never make mistakes never do anything - which in fact is the biggest mistake of all.



• Do something different. I remember a relative of mine telling me the story of how he approached new marketing campaigns. He said that every single time his first thoughts were to go to the filing cabinet to see what they had done before and to see what they could use again. Each time he resisted the urge and used brainstorming sessions to come up with ideas that were relevant to the new campaign. What can you do today that is different? What can you do tomorrow that is different and the day after that and the day after that and .......



• Be yourself. Do you find yourself trying to conform too much to fit an image that people may have of you. Do you find yourself doing things just to please others but inwardly having a nagging feeling that you could contribute some of your own ideas? Do you find yourself thinking that you could achieve the result required by someone but by doing it a different way - a way that you felt more comfortable with? Next time be bold and discuss how you feel and take the positive route. See what happens. Review what you learnt. If things do not go well think about how you would do things differently next time rather than go back into your comfort zone.



• Think about your current comfort zone. Think about your work, your habits, your friends, your social life, your hobbies. What do you do everyday and why? By going through this process you may just find something that you consider worth changing that may challenge you more. Keep analysing your comfort zone because you will find that, as you move from one comfort zone, you will gradually get used to the next.

• Imagine the change you want.



• Build an expectation of the change.



• Mentally and emotionally, prepare yourself for the change by anticipating what it will be like.

• Don't try to change everything at once



• Have a good reason for your actions



• Get help and support from your colleagues



• Expect to feel nervous/lack of confidence



• Don't expect immediate success



• Think 'Can do'



• Remember all of the other things you do well



• Review the process. What new learning has there been? What new knowledge have you gained? What new skills have you developed? What change has occurred?

Books on Comfort Zone (There are a couple of good choices in the list.