Today I wanted to talk about comfort zones, and some thing we can do to get out of comfort zones.
Think of your comfort zone as things that you can do effectively without much thought or fear. You're comfortable doing them.
The benefit of having a larger comfort zone could simply be stated as a more effective or fulfilling life.
Another way to think about the benefit of moving out of your comfort zone is by answering the question, what would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail. Think about all the things you're not doing because of fear of failure or just fear of the unknown. The lack of certainty.
Now let's talk about what's outside of your comfort zone. For a lot of people, the zone directly outside of their comfort zone is their anxiety zone.
To illustrate this point, visualize in your mind two circles, one inside the other. Let's label the inside circle your comfort zone and the outside circle your anxiety zone.
The key to moving outside of your comfort zone is realizing that there is actually a third circle. We'll call that circle your learning zone.
So now, as you work from the center, you have your comfort zone, then your learning zone, and the outer ring is your your anxiety zone. You can see how your learning zone is the key to expanding your comfort zone to make it larger once you learn to perform the new behavior.
So how do we create this learning zone and then turn it into a comfort zone?
It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone, but it's good to think about courage not as a lack of fear, but as the ability to move forward despite your fear. Most people can't make fear go away, nor should they. Fear is an emption we need to survive. So how do we have courage and move forward despite our fear.
Stepping out of your comfort zone requires you to take risk, but that risk can be minimized if you follow a method of making success more likely while avoiding rash, unproductive, or irrational behavior.
One such process involves setting goals; determining the importance of achieving the goal; weighing risks against benefits; selecting the proper time for action; developing a plan; and developing contingency plans.
Setting Goals
What does success look like in this high-risk situation? Is it obtainable? Your goals should be reasonably within reach, not pie-in-the-sky ambitions. Having your goal is key, because it is the reward at the end of the journey. As you go through this journey of getting out of your comfort zone, focusing on your goal is what will get you through it if you start to waiver.
Is your goal Import
Just how important is it that you achieve your goal or goals? If you don’t do something about the current state of affairs, will you suffer? Will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror? Courage is not about squandering effort on low-priority issues. Focusing on fewer but more important things. Pick your battles so to speak, but make sure you don't forego something you will regret later.
Weighing Risks and Benefits
This component focuses on trade-offs. What do you stands to win? What do you stands to lose? What are the chances that your reputation will be tarnished beyond repair if you go forward? Will you lose respect of your friends or peers? Will you miss out on opportunities?
Selecting the Right Time
Although emotion is always in the mix, and may even be an asset when making a courageous move, consider the timing of making the move now or waiting. For your situation consider the art of losing the battle in order to win the war.
Don't spend too much time considering the timing because the opportunity for courage may pass you by. At the same time, too little consideration may result in a hasty leap. It’s important to remember that courageous action for the most part is deliberative. Real emergencies are rare. Time may well be on your side.
Developing a plan
If you have determined the timing is right, the next step is to come up with a plan on how you can move forward. In this podcast, it's impractical for me to give you a specific plan, but for example, if you have a fear of heights, you could do some research into the safety history of parasailing. When developing your plan, think of all the things inhibiting your and make a plan to learn how to overcome or minimize those roadblocks.
Developing Contingency Plans
Faced with having to take a risk, most people make only one attempt. The better developed your contingency plans are, the likelier it is you’ll achieve your goals.
Moving out of your comfort zone and into your learning zone often requires being what you haven’t been, thinking as you haven’t thought, and acting as you haven’t acted.
