The comfort zone - whether it needs to be expanded and how to do it right

There is a common phrase: “Getting out of your comfort zone”. But there is another phrase that almost no one knows: “Everyone talks about how to get out of the comfort zone, but no one tells you how to get in”.

Grigory Bakhin

psychologist, coach, goal achievement expert

What is a comfort zone for a person and how does he behave in it?

What is a comfort zone

To put it briefly, it is an environment that is familiar to a person, where he/she practically does not have to make any effort, where there are no worries.

A simple example: when a person is driving in the morning on a familiar route, he is in the comfort zone. But if there is some dangerous maneuver or an unknown route, and it is still necessary to arrive on time and not to get into a traffic jam, then a person starts to tense up and feel a certain stress.

In a familiar environment, a person usually behaves calmly and confidently, because there is control over the situation and there is a practiced algorithm, a ritual. For example, you get up at 8:00 a.m., brush your teeth, fill your favorite granola with yogurt, make coffee, leave the house at 9:30 – and at 10:30 you are already at work. Everything is standard, clear and predictable, what to worry about?

And now let’s imagine what your behavior will be if you have your first working day at a new job, and in a company where you have long wanted to get? Or you decided to get up not at the usual 8:00, but at 6:00 in order to have time for a jog?

These are new actions that knock out the usual rhythm, somewhere even a completely new experience for a person. And no one knows how this experience will be – positive or negative. Hence doubts, uncertainty, worries, excitement and even fear. Is it necessary to expand the comfort zone for development? And how to do it correctly?

Any new thing is a stress for the body, so it is necessary to listen to how the body and mind react to it. It is necessary to be empathetic. For example, if you have just started doing sports, then do not demand from yourself big records, do not overload yourself. Everything should be in pleasure, it is through pleasure and awareness that the comfort zone expands.

Struggle with inner boundaries. There are so many limiting beliefs in the comfort zone. For example, “I want to run a marathon, but… / I want to take up volleyball, but… / I want to change jobs, but…”. You can and should work with these internal barriers, you can try to work through them on your own, or you can turn to a specialist.

I always say that the main task of a person is to make him/her feel comfortable. Pay attention to yourself, notice yourself: in negotiations, sports, hobbies, how your muscles react and tense up, how your body feels, what thoughts are in your head, etc.

Because any step out of your comfort zone is a learning of yourself, it is a resource that should be a joy.