6 Steps You Can Take to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
I am going to start this blog post by taking you back to a weekend back in 2010 when my sister and her husband paid a visit to South Florida to visit yours truly. I believe by that time they were married and no longer living in sin. There is no reason for me to mention the fact they were living in sin in this post other than to make my Mom cringe a little bit if/when she reads this – sorry Mom, love you!
Anyways, one of the things I like most about my brother-in-law, Tim, is that he is an adventurous guy. So, one of the first things he wanted to do on their trip was to head down to the Everglades to check out the alligators. Sounded like a good idea to me! So, the next day the 3 of us got in my Jeep and made the short trek south to the Everglades.
We ended up at the Everglades Alligator Farm and after walking around for a bit we decided to check out a snake show. The show began, and there were probably a couple hundred people in the audience – with the 3 of us sitting near the back. All-of-a-sudden the snake guy running the show pulled out a red box and proceeded to ask for a volunteer. Of course, no one volunteered knowing full well what was in that red box, seeing as it was a snake show and all. Undeterred, he proceeded to go ahead and pick someone from the audience.
The person he picked? Yup, you guessed it – me!
I’m not going to lie, I am not the biggest fan of snakes – like, I REALLY do not like them. So, of course, the first thought that went through my mind was ‘crap! really? me?’. But then for some reason, another thought entered my mind, that being – ‘dude, sometimes you need to suck it up and step out of your comfort zone’. For the next several seconds, those 2 thoughts engaged in an epic battle in my mind…
Which thought prevailed? Well, you will have to wait until the end of the blog post to find out!
Comfort Zones
They are something we all have, and while the size of each of our comfort zones differs, we all have them. According to Alasdair A.K. White, author of From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, “A comfort zone is a psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person and they are at ease and in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. In this zone, a steady level of performance is possible.” 1
A comfort zone is, in essence, a behavioral space which possesses a familiar routine and pattern that is free of risk, thus minimizing stress and anxiety. This helps us by ensuring we are free of anxiety, experience reduce stress and are happy.
While comfort zones do have some positive benefits and can be a healthy adaptation for our lives as we have seen, they also have some negative aspects. You see, to grow, transition, and transform yourself it is necessary to step out of your comfort zone from time to time.
Why do you need to step out of your comfort zone?
There are a bunch of other reasons to step out of your comfort zone, with some being to:
Open up a whole world new possibilities
And things about ourselves that we did not know existed and to fulfill our personal and professional potential – we get to see what we are made of!
Acquire new skills
And to learn new things.
Make us happier
According to Gretchen Rubin, author of Better Than Before, sometimes we want to keep doing the same thing to make our lives as easy as possible: “But often we’re happier, we feel more energetic, more productive, more creative when we try something new, when we challenge ourselves a little bit, when we kind of go out of that comfort zone. That atmosphere of growth can really boost our happiness.”
Be more productive
Sometimes we need a bit of unease and discomfort to meet deadlines and expectations.
Become more adaptable
By getting used to taking risks and being uncomfortable we put ourselves in situations where we need to adapt, which prepares us for when unexpected stuff happens.
New experiences and opportunities
If all we do is stay in our safe little cocoon we may be missing out on new experiences and opportunities.
We grow!
Taking risks opens you up to making a mistake or failing – but that is how you learn and grow – by making mistakes! You don’t learn from success!!!
It helps us deal with change in our life
By getting out of our comfort zone, we open ourselves up to some type of change. This can only help us down the road as we get accustomed to dealing with and welcoming change in our lives.
Gives us confidence
Stepping outside of our comfort zone whether we succeed or fail gives us a ton of confidence just by doing something. We learn that we can do it! And if we do it once, we can do it again!
Helps keep us sharp mentally as we get older
Lead researcher Denise Park of the University of Texas at Dallas shows: “It seems it is not enough just to get out and do something—it is important to get out and do something that is unfamiliar and mentally challenging, and that provides broad stimulation mentally and socially. When you are inside your comfort zone you may be outside of the enhancement zone.”
Meeting new people
If we step out of our comfort zone, many times we will be exposed to and meet all kinds of people we would not have met had we stayed in our comfort zone. 3
It can help us focus better
We focus best when the task is 4% harder than our skillset – which is just a bit outside our comfort zone. It helps release chemicals cortisol and norepinephrine which will help us pay attention better. They say 4% is the sweet spot because it releases just a little bit of norepinephrine, which comes with anxiety, but not too much which is associated with fear and blocks flow.
Does the Comfort Zone Have a Limit?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer goes back to some early research done by a pair of psychologists – Robert Yerkes and John D. Dodson. They explained that while you need a relative amount of comfort to create steady performance, you also need a little bit of anxiety mixed in there – enough to where you stress levels are higher than normal. This anxiety is what they call ‘Optimal Anxiety’ and it lies just outside of our comfort zone in the optimal performance zone. According to the researchers, “Anxiety improves performance until a certain optimum level of arousal has been reached. Beyond that point, performance deteriorates as higher levels of anxiety are attained.” 2 Outside of the optimum performance zone, lies the “danger zone”, this is where your performance decreases rapidly due to the influence of greater anxiety.
How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone – Use it or Lose It
So, as I said the idea is to challenge yourself enough that you enter the optimal performance zone without hitting the danger zone. There are several ways you can do this:
(1) Start small and take baby steps
Think about people who climb mountains – they don’t start with Mount Kilimanjaro. They start with small mountains, build up a tolerance and slowly progress. The idea is to slowly increase your tolerance where you find your ‘optimal anxiety’ that allows you to progress and surpass your tolerance and keep climbing that mountain! Take steps that are a bit unfamiliar, but not too emotionally challenging.
(2) Be curious
The more curious you are, the more you are going to want to try new things.
(3) Find Your ‘Why’
By figuring out why whatever endeavor you want to undertake is important to you. If your “why” is strong enough, it will help you fight through whatever fear is holding you back. Remember, sometimes the fear we anticipate is much greater than the actual fear.
(4) Stop rationalizing
By asking yourself the following question – “if I could make this anxiety go away, is this something I would really be excited to do?”. If the answer is yes, it will help you distinguish stuff you are rationalizing as not important from stuff that you would like to be able to do – if you could just step out of your comfort zone. Don’t make excuses and don’t rationalize! You will know when you are making excuses and rationalizing.
(5) Take the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt
Who famously said: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
(6) Be spontaneous
Sometimes you just need to throw caution to the wind and do it!
Before We Go…
Let’s go back to my snake show story. So, I had to make a quick decision – fake a heart attack or accept the snake guy’s indecent proposal.
For whatever reason, I took my own pieces of advice #5 and #6 from the section above and headed down to accept my fate – whatever it was.
My heart was racing, knowing that either I would conquer my fear or be lunch for whatever was in the red box. Either way, one thing was clear – I was about to step outside my comfort zone!
I introduced myself and shook the snake guy’s hand.
He then asked me ‘what does red stand for?”, motioning to the red box.
“Danger?”, I asked with a soft whimper as my eyes squinted and my nose crinkled.
“Correct”, he said.
He then pulled a white bag out of the box.
“What do you think is in the bag?”, he asked.
“Seeing as how we are at a snake show, I am going to go out on a limb and guess a snake”, I sarcastically shot back.
“Correct, what hand do you use to write?”, he asked.
After telling him that I was a lefty, he told me to reach into the bag with my right hand and pull out the snake.
“This dude is not just a snake man, but he’s also a comedian – NOT!”, I thought to myself!
So, I took a deep breath and said to myself ‘here goes nothing’, as my life flashed before my eyes, and reached into the danger-filled bag…
And pulled this badboy out…
And you know what, it wasn’t so bad after all – and I am glad I did it.
Sometimes, you just need to step out of your comfort zone!
Until next time, take a deep breath, step out of your comfort zone, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
Use It or Lose It:
Some ways to step out of your comfort zone:
Start small and take baby steps.|
Be curious.
Find your “Why”.
Stop rationalizing and making excuses!
Take the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt and do one thing a day that scares you!
Be spontaneous
A few ideas on things you can do to get out of your comfort zone:
Try different things every day – food, routes, books, exercises, podcasts.
Volunteer.
Call a friend you haven’t said hi to for a while.
Wear different clothes.
Learning new languages.
Travel.
When to Use It:
When you want to step out of your comfort zone!
What Do You Think?
Do you have a hard time stepping out of your comfort zone? Are there any other tricks you use to step out of your comfort zone? Please share in the comments below!
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References
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201612/how-leave-our-comfort-zones
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-flux/201512/5-benefits-stepping-outside-your-comfort-zone
https://www.inc.com/danny-iny/what-science-says-about-going-outside-your-comfort-zone.html
https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/02/escape-your-comfort-zone.html
3 Kwik Brain Podcast – Episode #46 – How to Train Focus and Flow with Steven Kotler
1 Alasdair A. K. White “From Comfort Zone to Performance Management”
2 Yerkes, R & Dodson, J. – “The Dancing Mouse, A Study in Animal Behavior” 1907 “Journal of Comparative Neurology & Psychology”, Number 18, pp 459–482
Started reading today’s words of advice, and I’ve seen variations of the snake box trick before. Inside is either a harmless garter snake or a toy rubber snake. It cannot be anything dangerous or poisonous, as then his insurance premiums would be astronomical. I wonder if this situation can be compared to “stage fright”, the fear of making a complete ass out of yourself in front of an audience.
I think the answer is to take small incremental steps into the optimal performance zone. And when you are at ease after repetition with these steps, basically your comfort zone has expanded. Each individual has to decide “how much” and “when” to move into the Green Zone, and assess the benefits of such a move.
And when you get to my age, you become quite satisfied with the comfort zone, and seldom step over your self-imposed boundary lines. Do you think I’m going to try sky diving or zip lining? The answer should be intuitively obvious to even the most casual bystander.
Hi Dave, it definitely was not poisonous or dangerous of course, but he still moved around a lot and wrapped around my arm. You are correct – they say to take small incremental steps into the optimal performance zone – you got it. Lol, skydiving or zip lining? Prob not, I remember George Bush Sr. went skydiving a few years ago. I’m sure you still do step out of your comfort zone more than you realize! Be good, Rick