The Comfort Zone
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
I wanted to write a post about the comfort zone because I often notice myself struggling with seemingly simple tasks. I will write something down that I know I should do. The only problem is that I occasionally find myself, a week or two later, looking at my list, and the task is still there. I haven’t done it yet.
We all want to be making progress in life. But we also tend to make things as easy as possible on ourselves. Why do more work than we need to, right? As comforting as it feels, being easy on ourselves doesn’t create massive change or hardcore progress in our lives. What creates life-changing progress for us is when we boldly step into the unknown.
The only tough part about taking action and stepping into the unknown is staying there until you adapt to it and feel comfortable. What we generally do is try to run back into our comfort zone as soon as possible. Being afraid of your potential is completely normal. It takes a lot of courage and strength to step into the unknown and be okay with it. And it takes even more strength not to run back to your old comfort zone!
The Comfort Zone
The comfort zone is a dastardly little bugger. Essentially, everyone lives the vast majority of their lives in their comfort zone. When you are in the comfort zone, you feel nice and safe, right at home. As the phrase suggests, you feel comfortable there. You feel as if you could just stay in your comfort zone forever and you would be content and happy in most ways.
Most people are in their comfort zone 24/7. When you are in your comfort zone all the time, you are forever doomed to living an ordinary and average life. This is why it’s important to understand how the comfort zone works and why you should master the process of learning and growing.
I am personally seeking to push past my comfort zone because I wish to experience an extraordinary life, rather than an ordinary one. You see, an ordinary life is a life that is unchanging – always the same. I wanted to break free from the normal life and just be 100% awesome all the time. What I discovered is that this extraordinary life requires constant effort – at least until you adapt to the unknown.
Life can kinda suck when you THINK you are making more progress than you are. I personally went through a very interesting experience recently. I made a decision to change. For about a month my life seemed to be radically improving in every way. Whenever fear of the unknown came up, I just pushed forward and felt really good about it.
What’s interesting is that after this first month, I continued to think and tell myself that I was progressing a lot, even though I could see that I was reaching a plateau. My efforts seemed to fizzle out. I still wanted to think that I was making large strides towards my goals, but the reality started to set in that I was actually back in my comfort zone again. I think a part of me thought that this was a one-time battle – that once I had defeated my fears, they were gone and it was finished. I discovered that’s not how it works…
I was still making progress in my life, but I felt like I was only accomplishing some of the less important things in my life. I think that a big part of this slow-down is just my perception of it. What I mean is that because I pushed out of my comfort zone into the unknown, I then became accustomed to that unknown; it became part of my comfort zone. I definitely haven’t shrunk back down to my ‘old self’, but I have adapted to the new life I created and now this new life feels ‘normal.’
The Comfort Zone Is Easy Mode
The comfort zone is EXACTLY like when you would play a game as a child and you chose the easy mode. It was pretty damn easy, unless you were playing or something. The only problem with easy mode is that it isn’t challenging… and if it isn’t challenging, you aren’t going to grow. You won’t become more skillful, knowledgeable, wise, or capable in any way.
To become better at anything, you need to push yourself. You need to choose medium difficulty. When medium difficulty becomes too easy, you need to move on to hard mode. When hard becomes to easy, you need to move on to very hard. And when very hard becomes too easy you need to move on to insane mode.
Once you master insane mode, then you basically win the game because relative to everyone else you appear as this godlike person with insane abilities. What’s interesting is that to you, it doesn’t feel godlike at all, you just feel normal.
Here’s a secret: you will always feel normal, no matter how far you have pushed yourself in life. You will only feel like a bad ass temporarily when you push outside of your comfort zone and succeed. Then, as you adapt to that new challenge, it will become part of your comfort zone and it will feel like part of your normal, everyday, average life.
Anyone can constantly accomplish easy tasks all day long. By making progress in the easy parts of your life, all you are doing is avoiding the #1 thing that is going to truly set you free – which is doing that thing that you don’t want to do. The ‘next level’ is right on the other side of whatever it is that you don’t want to do. Real progress is not made within the comfort zone.
All major progress in your life will happen when you step OUT of the comfort zone and stay there. What this means is that if you want to progress in your life, you need to make a concerted effort to step outside of your comfort zone as often as possible.
Tony Robins and You
It might be somewhat comforting to know that literally EVERYONE is in the comfort zone. You know who Tony Robins is, right? Tony Robins is someone who can get up in front of 50,000 people and speak for hours with pure confidence and emotional poise. Do you think that getting up on stage like that is within your comfort zone? Probably not.
When it comes to the comfort zone, the only difference between Tony Robins and you is that Tony Robins has greatly expanded his comfort zone! Going up on stage and bringing 50,000 people into tears of joy is well within Tony’s comfort zone. If it wasn’t within his comfort zone, he would be stifled and unable to perform at all. Much like you would be if you tried to go on stage and talk to just 50 people.
I’m sure Tony felt extremely nervous getting on stage when he was just starting out. That was because he wasn’t accustomed to it yet, it was outside of his comfort zone. Over time, his mind realized that going on stage was no big deal, because he did it all the time. When this happens, you become more relaxed and you feel far more confident. You are able to just be yourself and everyone enjoys you more because you aren’t nervous.
The Comfort Zone Is All In Your Mind
We often make things out to be harder than they actually are. I sometimes find myself dreading something that I need to do. I finally make the mental push and I go do it. Afterwards, I find myself saying: “Gosh, what was so hard about that?? That only took 10 minutes. In fact, it was actually pretty fun!“
We don’t really know how hard or easy something will be until we do it. Sometimes simple things will turn out to be a pain in the butt! Other times, what seemed hard turns out to be really easy. So, it’s a crap shoot. But my point is, don’t make things out to be any harder than they appear. In fact, you should always side with the idea that things will be easier than they seem. This habit will move you into action much more easily.
Once you step up and decide to DO it, it doesn’t really matter how little or big the task may be. The fact that you are taking action on what you feel ‘should’ be done is what will create real progress in your life. Whatever it is that you need to do will get done, and when it does, you will feel a deep satisfaction that you did it. Next time, it won’t be quite as difficult to step up because you have done it before.
I often think that a lot of this mental stress can be relieved if we simply stopped thinking about it so much. Instead, we should focus on how we feel and move our selves into action. Does it feel too hard? Well, it’s not. Just tell yourself that. “It’s not hard, I can do this.”
Often times instead of going into my head and beginning the rationalization and procrastination process, I will simply start moving my body towards the target. If I need to clean up the garden, I will just start walking there. This usually gives me enough momentum to just do it when I get there.
That example kind of reminds me of approaching people and talking to them. Even if I feel stifled and scared inside, as soon as I start walking, there is no turning back. Usually by the time I arrive and introduce myself, I have already gained all the confidence I needed to break the ice.
Stepping Out Of The Comfort Zone
Living in adversity creates inner strength. Inner strength creates consistency. Consistency creates possibility. Possibility allows for vision. Vision allows for growth… and Growth is the name of the game. If you are not growing or progressing in some way, you will not find true happiness. Even people who sit in a cave and meditate all day are growing mentally and spiritually. In fact, they are growing immensely.
Think of this simple metaphor for a moment. You are walking along a road and you see a really hard rock as well as a really soft rock. You are able to crush the soft rock easily with your foot and it breaks into a million pieces. You attempt to crush the hard rock and it remains the same. It actually kind of hurts.
Take note that you don’t judge the soft rock as being a bad rock and the hard rock as being a good rock. They are simply rocks. There is a natural variation in the hardness.
The same principle applies to people. Some people are going to be emotionally stronger and more powerful while others will be emotionally weaker and not confident. The people that are emotionally weak simply haven’t been put through adversity like the strong people. The weak people have lived their entire life in their comfort zone. The strong people routinely push themselves into new situations and out of their comfort zone. The strong people purposefully add resistance into their life much like how a body builder will continuously add weight to his/her lifts to make them stronger.
Conclusion on The Comfort Zone
Pushing out of your comfort zone is easier than you think, but harder than what you are currently doing. It can take some time to find this balance point or ‘learning zone’, where you are in a state of growth. It is a life-long endeavor, so it’s best to start this process NOW.
You don’t want to be sitting down 5 years from now thinking, “I wish I would have taken action 5 YEARS AGO when I read that great post Philip Konn wrote. Imagine what I could have accomplished by now! Imagine what my life could have been like! I could have been living in my dream home by now! I need to get my act together…” only to find yourself saying the exact same thing 5 years from then.
It’s time to take action!! YOU DESERVE IT.
THIS is the opportunity that set me free, and I’m only sharing it with you because I want to set you free, too…
It’s funny how life works and everything comes together, think about what brought you to this post… You aren’t sure how you got here but here you are, reading this… and it’s time to make a decision…
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