Your behavioral safe place, i.e., your comfort zone, is a great place to be. Sometimes. You feel safe there, you’re not threatened or challenged, you are calm and peaceful. Your anxiety and stress levels are at their minimum. It’s nice. It’s safe. It’s comfortable.
It’s that place of behaviors and pursuits, patterns and routines that you’ve become accustomed to; it’s those activities and tasks that you’ve mastered so well that you can plow through them regularly practically with your eyes closed. You are on auto-pilot. No fear. No problem.
Our comfort zone is very appealing, and it’s often a desired place to be. But, it is not always what we need to become our BEST SELVES, to achieve our goals, and to SEIZE OUR PASSIONS.
Indeed, there’s been a ton of studies done in both Science and Psychology that explain exactly what your “comfort zone” is, why it’s SO HARD to break out of it, and why it can actually be really beneficial to do so…
These studies show that to maximize your performance level, to grow and evolve, to become better at something, to achieve the next level of your goals and YOUR GREATNESS, and even just to feel fulfilled and happy as opposed to empty and bored – which is often what happens with routine and comfort zone activities and behaviors – sometimes, we need to be in a state of relative anxiety. We need to step outside of our comfort zone to achieve a state of what is known as “Optimal Anxiety.”
The key is to find that perfect sweet spot, just outside of your comfort zone where your stress and anxiety levels are slightly higher than normal; but not to the point where they are so high that they paralyze you rather than propel you forward towards more productivity, creativity and empowerment.
Having a comfort zone and sometimes staying in your comfort zone is not a bad thing. Its a normal and universal human condition. We all have it, we all do it, and we all need it at times. Leaving your comfort zone is so hard because it’s synonymous with risk and fear – which is where the anxiety and stress come in, of course. And, sometimes it’s actually beneficial to stay in your comfort zone in order to really take in and implement the benefits you get when you do step out of it.
What are those benefits? Here are a few:
- You’ll become more productive. When there are no expectations, deadlines or challenges, we all tend to do the minimum required to get by. We lose any added drive or motivation to push ourselves further and do more or better. However, when faced with such obstacles and challenges, our basic human instinct is to try and push through them, overcome them, and figure out a way to get to our end goal. By stepping outside of your comfort zone, that human instinct will kick in and you will be motivated to push yourself further and become more productive.
- Life is full of unexpected changes and curve balls. If you’re fairly used to stepping outside of your comfort zone – on your terms – then you will have a much easier time dealing with life’s unannounced surprises because you’ll have trained yourself with the skill of adapting, dealing with, and overcoming such situations and circumstances.
- The more you leave your comfort zone, the more you’ll keep pushing the needle on that comfort zone further; and you’ll find yourself continuously pushing new boundaries and achieving further goals, and growing BIGGER AND BETTER every time.
- You will develop a skill and a talent for thinking outside of the box, problem solving and harnessing your creativity – thinking creatively – in whatever you do or face. When you seek new experiences, learn new skills, and open the door to new ideas, you naturally and organically are inspired to be more innovative, to learn more and ultimately to continuously grow and evolve.
You have to know, discover or figure out what your personal comfort zone is. Everyone’s is different. Once you do, step outside of it, ever so slightly and do so one step at a time. That’s the sweet spot you’re looking for to #Seize Your Passion!
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