Why the comfort zone is more dangerous than you think
I was at an event last week at which the keynote speaker talked about stepping out of your comfort zone. The speaker was Tori James, an inspirational woman who has achieved remarkable things, conquering Everest being one of them. In context Tori was talking about stepping out of her comfort zone in preparation of a race to the magnetic North pole, but we often talk about our comfort zones in far less daunting and monumental expeditions. This made me wonder though, how many people consider how dangerous a place their comfort zone really is.
Doing what we always do is easy because we have always done it. It is familiar and safe and steady and predictable and all of those other lovely secure things that we find at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow’s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg
In contrast, stepping outside that comfort zone, going into the unknown, is scary. We don’t know what the risks are, we don’t know what will happen next. Well let me tell you something, the further out of your comfort zone you get, the closer you are to where the magic happens. Why? Lets look at this as a tale of 2 cities:
I am very familiar with Central London. I go there a lot, I know my way around, I feel safe there, I know where things are there and my experience of being in the capital has always been good. Cardiff on the other hand, not so much. I have learned the route from the Prince of Wales Pub to the Millennium Stadium but outside of that it is scary, unfamiliar and I worry that I’ll get lost or stranded and will be stuck there forever. (For those that don’t know Cardiff, the pub and stadium mentioned are almost next door to each other).
So in real terms what does this mean? It means that when I am in London, I am complacent, I go into auto pilot, I don’t concentrate, I step in front of taxi’s because I am busy on my phone, I am late for meetings because I trust that I will be able to step from one form of public transport to another, and I miss chances to see new things in London because its so familiar to me that I don’t even notice the new and exciting things that I have never done. Cardiff on the other hand, I walk round with my wits about me, I check every road name twice, I make sure my phone is charged so that I can call for help if I get lost, I give myself 7 times more time than needed to get anywhere and last time I went my friend wrote her mothers address up my arm so that I would stop panicking that I would end up abandoned.
The exact same things happen with our comfort zones, when we are doing the things that we know, the familiar and safe stuff, we become complacent. We don’t focus on what we are doing, we miss opportunities because we are not looking for them and we lay ourselves open for ‘attack’ because we are not monitoring threats. When we step out of this comfort zone into the unknown we are suddenly more aware of potential risks, we become more focussed on the goals set and pay more attention to details and opportunities.
My advice then, is to step outside your comfort zone every single day, not just because that is how you will grow and develop, but it is the place where you will be aware of what is around you and be focussed on where you want to go. Don’t hang around in the dangers of your comfort zone, take the step into the place where the magic happens.
