“We are so accustomed to the comforts of "I cannot", "I do not want to" and "it is too difficult" that we forget to realise, that when we stop doing things for ourselves and expect others to dance around us, we are not achieving greatness. We have made ourselves weak.”
―Pandora Poikilos
Pandora Poikilos said it right! Truth is, that our comfort zones are a great place, but nothing grows there. There are many ways in our everyday lives that we can notice ourselves in our comfort zone. These are our routines, our hobbies, things that we are used to doing.
Some know comfort zone as a state of the mind where we experience little to no stress, anxiety and nervousness. However, that is not what fully entails the comfort zone. All of us have different thresholds for these emotions and they vary in different aspects of life.
Comfort zone, according to me, is a mental state in which we experience stress, anxiety, nervousness and vulnerability in amounts that we are used to managing. It is usually experienced in those area of life where we know what's going on and we feel familiar to our situation and environment.
At this point, a lot of you may be thinking "What's outside my comfort zone?"
Fair question if you ask me. According to Alasdair A. K. White, a management theorist who wrote From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, we have 3 psychological states.
Comfort Zone
This is where we are used to being; a place where we are familiar with our routines and situations. Here we experience no or minute amount of stress, anxiety and vulnerability as we navigate our daily lives.
Optimal Performance Zone
This is where we experience slightly heightened levels of stress, anxiety and vulnerability but where our performance is enhanced due to the increased levels.
Danger Zone
This is where we step into the unknown. When we are in the danger zone, we are strangers in the environment, we experience high levels of vulnerability and anxiousness. You can find yourself here, for example, when you take on a task without knowing the outcome. (Read Two Kinds Of People)
Just as good as all this is to know, it is also important to know why we should step out of our comfort zones when staying in the comfort zone is, well, comfortable.
1. Growth
Choosing to stay in your comfort zone will never allow you to grow more than you are. A lot of us tend to get addicted to the comfort in the comfort zone and it hinders us from achieving our goals. We stay in the comfort zone, doing things the way we've always done them because that's what we know best even when it isn't producing the results we want. To know and harness our full potentials we have to step outside of our comfort zone.
2. Passion
If you are at a point in your life where you are trying to discover what you are passionate about, this is the best way! Our passions are not lurking in the corners of our comfort zone. For some it is right outside and for others it is a few steps more but you won't truly be able to find out, until you take a step into the unknown.
3. Settling
Our potentiality and passions lie outside of the comfort zone which increase what we feel we are worthy of. This will allow us to not settle for anything less. Staying in the comfort zone also makes us settle for less because we tend not to take the steps out of it, due to fears of vulnerability and anxiety of the unknown that could lead to us missing out on greater results and opportunities.
After all that, the questions remains, how should we step into the discomfort zone. Stay tuned for Discomfort Zone Vol. 2, where I will share the steps you can take to unleash your true potential in the discomfort zone.
All be blessed,
Rahil Dave
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