How to grow your comfort zone

Over the past 18 months, the way people live and work has changed drastically, and some of those changes are possibly here to stay. Where people might have previously worked in offices, travelled into towns or major cities regularly, they now work from home and travel a lot less frequently. After initially rebelling against the restrictions, many of us now find them to be a comfortable place. Our new normal therefore became our new comfort zone. However, the longer you spend in your comfort zone, the smaller it gets which made me realise that many of us need to learn how to grow our comfort zones in order to grow and develop ourselves. 

As we come out of lockdown, I’ve been hearing a number of business owners mention how they feel apprehensive about attending large-scale networking events, catching the train or doing things that were once part of their daily, working routine. But the unfamiliar can quickly become familiar once more.

1. What is your comfort zone?

Your comfort zone is where you feel totally happy and not challenged at all. You feel safe and secure and most of the time you feel content to be in it. You only want to step out of your comfort zone if you have good reason.

2. What is outside your comfort zone?

Where a lot of people go wrong is thinking that anything outside their comfort zone is scary. There are two zones outside the comfort zone. The furthest zone is your panic zone and is a place you don’t want to be. This is where you feel terrified or unsafe and you truly don’t want to be there as it makes you extremely uncomfortable. However, in between the comfort zone and the panic zone lies the growth zone.

3. What is the growth zone?

The growth zone is just outside of your comfort zone and is slightly scary. You may be somewhat apprehensive to step into it, but it’s exciting and you want to do it because you know it will be good for you. This zone doesn’t make you break out in a cold sweat though. Instead, it will give you butterflies. You step into the growth zone when you look at: 

• Changing career
• Starting a business
• Getting a new product to market
• Creating videos for the first time 

While slightly scary, they aren’t things that put you in any danger. In fact, it’s important to remember that whenever we do something we have never done before with no training, it’s normal to feel scared. The trick is to do it anyway. The first time you do anything, it will be scary because it’s unfamiliar. But when you do it for the third or fourth time you’ll be confident in your own abilities and you will have expanded your comfort zone.

4. Where to spend most of your time

The way to grow your comfort zone is to spend as much time in the growth zone as possible. Do something new and exciting as often as you can. Go and: 

• Record that first video
• Ask your boss for that promotion
• Learn a new skill
• Attend that event 

Think of these things as growing your comfort zone and you will be more likely to do them; more importantly, you will want to do them when you realise you are developing yourself. 

I don’t know about you, but by spending most of last year in my own comfort zone, the world felt like it got a lot smaller too. But now I’m ready to live my life and experience everything I can to make it a life worth living. 

I hope you can join me.