What is a comfort zone? Definition
The comfort zone is a living space without external stimuli. This is the zone that a person considers safe for himself. Everything happens naturally in her. That is, the comfort zone is a space well studied by man. It does not involve overcoming any life obstacles, fears, or learning something unknown.
Beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone lies all the best in a person’s life.
Direct all your efforts to mastering something new, making new acquaintances, communicating. If there is no development, a person will gradually begin to slide backward.
What is narrowing your comfort zone?
Expanding your comfort zone leads to personal development. However, it is not enough to leave your comfort zone once or expand it a little; you need to constantly maintain the achieved level and fuel your motivation. Otherwise, the person degrades. The comfort zone is narrowing. If a person does not put into practice what he has learned, then he loses the skill, his comfort zone narrows.
This continues until he reaches basic needs. But sometimes they also suffer, for example, with alcoholism and drug addiction. Family, friends, work, money depreciate. This happens not only with dependent people, but also with lazy, psychologically weak individuals. They prefer to be content with little, comparing themselves with those whose lives are even worse. Sometimes they pass this off as a special philosophy or a special worldview, enlightenment.
Knowing what comes next
A person’s life is filled with many actions that he performs every day, literally bringing them to automaticity.
An example would be brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, or leaving the house at a certain time. All these things are imperceptibly lined up in a chain and allow us to plan our day, knowing how much time is spent and on what. Such a routine brings a person a feeling of stability and comfort, knowledge of what will happen next.
In addition to the sequence of actions itself, there are also environments that are familiar to us, in which we can relax, without expecting any unforeseen situations and immersing ourselves completely in the chain of our daily tasks.
All this is the comfort zone that we create for ourselves. And everyone decides how wide the radius of its action will be and whether he wants to change it.
When we perform the same actions every day, this information enters our consciousness so deeply that sometimes it is not possible to remember whether you did something or forgot. This is a consequence of bringing operations to automation.
What does a comfort zone involve?
The comfort zone assumes:
- Long-term consistency. That is, for several decades life goes according to the usual pattern. For example, home-work-life.
- Same relationship. Without new acquaintances there will be no new opportunities.
- Same job. Besides, if she is not yet loved, then everything is sad.
- “Canned”, internal fears and complexes. Constantly being in your comfort zone, a person will never get rid of his fears and complexes.
What most often prevents you from leaving your comfort zone:
- Habits;
- Closedness;
- Atrophied aspirations;
- Fear of the new;
- Laziness.
Being in your comfort zone every day, you get used to it, and going beyond its boundaries causes a stressful situation. Stress harms the mind. It makes you want to never do that again.
Reasons why it is advisable to leave your comfort zone
- Reason one: you're getting soft
When metal is heated, it becomes soft, it can be given any shape, but if the heating process drags on, the metal will completely melt. And now not only can you not give it shape, but you cannot return it to its original state. The same thing happens to the human brain without development.
How to get out of your comfort zone?
And being safe, there is no need to develop as a person and change anything in your life. For what? After all, the comfort zone is the final stable point.
When there is no need to solve complex problems, clarity of thinking, decision-making and learning are lost. You become like a vegetable that does the same thing every day and moves along a well-trodden path.
Remember what period of your life you can call the most creative and fruitful? It was hardly the most stable and profitable month or year.
Does anything resonate within?
- Reason two: you give up on your goals
Almost every person has his own blue dream in the depths of his soul/consciousness. Something like “see the sea and die.” The interesting thing is that most often these goals are not something unattainable and unattainable, but people always feel like something is stopping them.
You push your goal further and further, growing into a comfort zone on all sides. And now, your goal is practically unattainable. After all, it’s really difficult to get out of your warm hole into the sunlight.
- Reason three: you may never recognize yourself
There is an opinion that only when faced with difficulties does a person fully reveal his true self. You can live your whole life like a flower in a greenhouse, and never know what you are really capable of. Maybe you are actually inventive and proactive, and don’t you just think so? Or maybe you are patient and persistent?
It's time to leave your comfort zone and see who you really are and where your limits are. The result may really pleasantly surprise you.
One day, the comfort zone for any person turns into something that deprives life of color and interferes with the natural need to develop.
Photo by Monstera: Pexels
Remember those moments in life in which you took your breath away, after which you really wanted to live. You were stepping out of your comfort zone. So why not repeat this experience?
If, nevertheless, you want to leave your warm bed, then there are a number of ways that can help you.
How to get out of your comfort zone? Exit points
In fact, everything is very simple. There is no need to create a cozy nest for yourself in which you will always feel good and from which you will not want to leave. The comfort zone is not the path to harmony for a person.
The world is full of wonderful things and events, they are ready to bring a lot of positive emotions and make you happy.
It is very important for everyone to have a place where it will always be warm and cozy, where you can return after a long day and finally relax. This place is called home. But it is the life and movement boiling around, the storm of emotions and events that allow you to fully appreciate the delights of your home.
After all, there we can calmly retire and think about everything that happened during the day, plunge into memories under a warm blanket and enjoy a comfortable environment, this is a full life.
It should be noted that, in addition to the emotional fullness of life, leaving the comfort zone also brings spiritual development.
Benefits of leaving your comfort zone
Leaving your comfort zone is stressful. But few people know that small, rare and specially organized stress is beneficial for the body. It increases overall resilience, endurance and adaptability. If you regularly force yourself to get used to something new, to cope with it, then it will not be difficult for you to get used to what life unexpectedly throws at you.
Periodic increase in intellectual, physical, mental stress, work in unusual conditions is beneficial for the psyche. By expanding your comfort zone, you develop comprehensively, grow and mature as a person, and prepare yourself to overcome difficulties. A crisis, illness, job loss will not deal you such a blow as an inflexible person who is not accustomed to leaving comfortable conditions will experience. You will quickly pull yourself together and find a new place of work.
Leaving your comfort zone improves the quality of life, taking it to a new material, psychological and spiritual level. For example, a person understands that he wants a family, children, but at the same time he understands that a one-room apartment and an income of 30 thousand does not correspond to this desire. Then he makes a plan: first you need to find a higher-paying job, then you need to buy at least a two-room apartment, after which you can have children. Based on the goals, he draws up an action plan. According to the first point, he needs to understand who he wants and can work for, what skills and knowledge he lacks, where he can get it. He finds training courses, signs up for them, etc. With every step a person becomes closer to his ideal of a happy life.
Development
When we are in an unusual environment, the consciousness begins to analyze what is happening around us, learn something new, get used to new types of people and the personal characteristics of each person.
This is not only spiritual, but also intellectual development. Communication and exchange of knowledge are more effective than simply reading books, which often represent only theory, excluding the human factor.
It is those very exits from the comfort zone that bring us invaluable experience, and for people who do this constantly, the comfort zone generally loses its boundaries.
It happens that we meet people who “make everyone fall in love” with them at first sight, they find a common language with everyone and evoke a lot of positive emotions.
It becomes comfortable to be around such a person and everyone wants to touch his energy in order to feel the warmth of his soul.
There are very few of them, but you will definitely understand if you meet such a person. After all, it was he who reached the level where he feels comfortable in almost any situation.
A few highlights
Here are a few key points that will adequately help you get out of your comfort zone and enjoy the fullness and harmony of life.
- The comfort zone should not be subject to sudden expansion. You just need to plan for every day some actions that will push the boundaries to a small extent.
- Go to new places, meet people. Try to gradually get used to the changes around you.
- To increase your efficiency, you can join a club or take a course, choosing something really interesting for yourself. This will serve as a tool for intellectual and spiritual development.
- Don't forget about the benefits of expanding your comfort zone not only in your free time, but also at work. By taking the initiative in some issues that have not yet been touched upon, you can discover new abilities and achieve better results in your career growth.
Every person has a dream or desire that some are ready to strive for, while others consider it unrealistic.
Think about what is a desire for you that seems unrealistic and try to do everything to achieve it.
For greater efficiency, it is also worth setting deadlines and intermediate tasks for yourself.
Meeting new people is perhaps the most effective way to get out of your comfort zone. You begin to learn something new about a person. About his activities, hobbies, spend time together. In such conditions, changes in the environment become not so significant.
Of course, in order to feel the fullness of life, you should not cross boundaries and rush into the maelstrom of wars or extreme sports. It’s enough to simply fill your everyday life with new events that interest you. And you can become happy and share this happiness with loved ones.
Books about the comfort zone:
- Brian Tracy "Get Out of Your Comfort Zone";
- M. J. Ryan "This year I...";
- Kelly McGonical "Willpower";
- Eric Larssen "A week without self-pity."
If you still have any questions, you can ask me on my Instagram. Be sure to subscribe, where I talk about self-development, how to be healthy and not get sick, and about life with one backpack.
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