Comfort zones get such a bad press.
Despite all the memes to the contrary, your comfort zone is not and has never been your enemy.
The comfort zone
Your comfort zone isn’t a malevolent force trying to hold you back, or keep you trapped.
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It’s a space, a pause, where you’re sitting in psychological safety for a time.
Things here feel familiar.
You are at ease.
You are in control.
You experience low levels of anxiety in your comfort zone.
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…That’s why it feels so comfy!
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When it’s time to move beyond comfort…
It’s true that there is no growth in the comfort zone.
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When you’ve been in the same place for a while, things can start to feel too samey and boring.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And the comfy bubble begins to feel too small.
This is when you might spy a chink of possibility outside that looks interesting enough to explore.
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And you get to choose between staying in the now relative discomfort of same-old-land or moving into the new discomfort of change.
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But it’s less a ‘smashing through’ your comfort zone.
And more a ‘stretching into’ growth and learning.
The stretch zone
This next zone, just outside the comfy one is called the stretch zone.
Here is where you meet challenge, learning and growth.
There’s tension here because things feel unfamiliar and awkward.
You might feel nervous, wobbly, uncertain.
But your comfort zone is just behind you and you can retreat there whenever you need a break.
This fluid movement back and forth from comfort to stretch and back again allows you to embody the new challenges the stretch zone offers.
Until, eventually, your comfort zone expands to include everything that has become familiar.
And your stretch zone can now offer fresh learning opportunities.
This is how we grow.⠀
The panic zone
But beyond your stretch zone lives the aptly-named ‘panic zone’.
And this place is as scary as it sounds.
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It’s so far away from the safety of your comfort zone that fear and overwhelm are in charge here.
If you wind up here, your stress levels will be so high that learning is near impossible.
Smashing through comfort zones doesn’t work
The ‘smash through your comfort zone’ narrative isn’t helpful.
Not just because it’s macho, hustle-hard BS that’s deeply rooted in patriarchy, white supremacy and toxic capitalism.
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(I mean God forbid any of us should rest a while in psychological comfort and safety.)
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It’s also unhelpful because it does not work.
Smashing through that lovely comfort zone of yours will hurtle you straight past your growthy stretch zone.
And dump you straight into the circle of panic.
From where you’ll ping straight back to the safety of your comfort zone…. And not come out again for a good while.
All that energy and opportunity is wasted. Because no growth has taken place.
Far from being something to smash through, your comfort zone is the safe space where you get to rest, recover and integrate.
And when it inevitably starts to feel too small, you can explore the stretch zone at your pace.
THIS is how we grow, learn and transform.
Gently does it. (As always)
