The Hidden Trap of Comfort: How to Break Free and Achieve More
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”
Personal growth comes from leaving your comfort zone in business, leadership, and in life. Simply put, you can’t grow while you stay comfortable.
The problem is that we love to stay comfortable--it’s where things feel easy and there’s little-to-no resistance. Our brains and egos want us to stay comfortable because that’s what feels safe and familiar.
However, living in the comfort zone doesn’t actually equate to living out your potential, or actually feeling comfortable on a daily basis. Being stuck in the comfort zone can actually be quite uncomfortable. I felt it for years. For many individuals, they too feel unsatisfied, lost, stuck, or just a little “off” and they can’t explain why.
Upon further self-reflection and investigation, we may find that it is because we have become comfortable living in the “comfort” zone of our normal routines of life. We have been going at that pace for so long, or running non-stop in the hamster wheel, that changing our pace, or stepping off the hamster wheel, feels completely uncomfortable. Living in a constant state of stress and overwhelm is familiar. We don’t know life any other way.
For many individuals, changing up our pace of life and daily routines--or trying something new or different--can feel scary, unfamiliar, daunting, or confusing. There may be a fear of failure. Some individuals may have deeply embedded limiting beliefs and self-doubt that actually achieving what they desire is completely beyond their reach.
These two quotes come to mind when I think about staying in the comfort zone of life:
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“If you keep doing the same things, you’ll end up getting the same results.”
If we actually desire to grow personally and/or professionally, it requires us to try something different. To do so, we must leave the comfort zone. It is a requirement, not an option.
In Cleary’s (2017) Medium article, he explains, “I like to think of comfort zones like our very own prisons. A prison where our potential is contained within the four walls. Either you transcend your comfort zone and reach the higher planes of life, or stay transfixed within your comfort zone and remain stagnant. But it's warm, nice and comfortable? Exactly, it wouldn't be your comfort zone if it wasn't. Humans are creatures of habit, we resist change and anything that breaks us away from our daily routine and structures. But change is imperative for growth. It’s important to push the boundaries of your comfort zone in order to learn and grow.”
Moving Out of the Comfort Zone
This graphic illustrates the different zones individuals move through as they leave the comfort zone:
From my own experiences--and those of individuals I have personally worked with-- I have found that we can “live” in different zones at once. It all depends on what we are working on.
For example, there are certain areas of my life where I am still living in the “comfort zone;” however, I have been working on other goals that have led me out of the comfort zone, into the fear zone, and now I am in the learning zone.
Some goals I have intentionally worked on for over three years and I am now in the growth zone. But that doesn’t mean that I will stay there. After some time, I may become very comfortable with what I have achieved. At that point, I may find myself in the comfort zone once again. When I desire (or need) to increase my knowledge or skills, this will require me to set new goals, try new things, and do something different. I will have to leave the comfort zone and head into the next zone in order to continue to grow.
We can teeter between zones, too. For example, there are certain goals I’m working on where I am still in the fear zone. Sometimes, I can feel myself moving out of fear toward learning, but I go back-and-forth pending the day and the task. It takes repetition and practice. If I want to grow and expand, I have to keep moving forward.
There is also no telling how long we will stay in a zone or how long it will take to move to the next one. If we commit to growing and learning, it’s a continual journey and process.
Benefits of Leaving the Comfort Zone
At first, leaving the comfort zone doesn’t feel comfortable. And that’s okay and totally normally. Expect to be uncomfortable. That’s when we head into the fear zone. Eventually, we practice doing uncomfortable things to the point that over time, it becomes more comfortable. We head into the learning zone, and then eventually we find ourselves in the growth zone.
There are personal benefits to leaving the comfort zone. The article “How to Leave Your Comfort Zone and Enter Your ‘Growth Zone” from PositivePsychology.com explores these benefits:
Self-actualization: When we leave the comfort zone to work on achieving our highest potential, we are getting closer to self-actualizing as long as our choices align with our values (Maslow, 1943).
Development of a growth mindset: Having a growth mindset means we see setbacks as opportunities for learning. When we leave our comfort zone to try something new, we expand what is possible for us (Dweck, 1999).
Resilience: when we step outside of our comfort zone we cultivate resilience in facing challenges and opportunities, which further enhances our abilities to encounter future hardships.
Greater self-efficacy: When individuals execute the actions necessary to hit a goal, they build self-efficacy. Stepping outside of the comfort zone gives us practice doing so (Bandura, 1997).
I personally have experienced all four of these benefits in my life. As I look back at recent moments where I decided to leave the comfort zone and head into the fear zone -- like the time I decided to leave my “dream job” as a professor, or when I started to write my first book, or deciding to go “all in” and develop a personal brand and speaking career-- I encountered so much resistance, self-doubt, made excuses of why not to do those things, and let a lack of self-confidence keep me from moving forward.
Slowly, I developed my skills. I learned from others. I focused on personal development and did the internal work to build my self-confidence. I had to work through the resistance (and I actually published an article about working through that resistance when it came to my writing goals here).
As I worked on myself and my skill set, I started to move away from fear into the learning zone. In doing so, I have built my self-efficacy and strengthened my growth mindset. When the time comes for me to grow in new ways, I will be better prepared to do so because I have practiced it time and time again.
Where To Begin
If you’re feeling ready to learn a new skill or hobby, try something new, enhance your professional knowledge, develop healthier habits, create stronger relationships-- you name it-- there are some places you can start to practice leaving the comfort zone as you head toward the growth zone.
The PostivePsychology article I cited above lists the below possibilities for individuals who want to leave the comfort zone. I’ve also made a few of my personal notes below for you. Feel free to head to the article to dig more deeply into these options as well as the concepts I previously discussed:
Do everyday things differently
Expand your professional skill set— you can do so by listening to a podcast, reading an article/book, and/or learning from others.
Try a new diet— I suggest starting with choosing healthier options for meals and snacks and focusing on your water intake.
Take workouts to the next level— If you’re not already walking or lifting weights, start to incorporate daily walks and 2-3 days of weight training into your routines.
Get creative— Find something you enjoy doing, get creative, or dedicate some time to a hobby.
Challenge your beliefs
Practice honesty— Be honest with yourself, your progress, and your goals.
Start Small
With most things that require change, I encourage individuals to start small. I also have to remind myself that any big goal still needs micro steps to get there.
As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits, “A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination. Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits--not once-in-a-lifetime transformations” (p 17-18).
So my friends, start small. Identify and work on small changes that overtime will become habits that lead you to the bigger goal. (You can read my Journal about habit stacking here.) Each small step you take will lead you further away from the comfort zone toward the growth zone.
Remember, “you didn’t come this far to only come this far.” Move forward each day, and see what happens on the other side.
*The quote, “There is no growth in the comfort zone,” comes from Willink and Babin’s (2019) book The Dichotomy of Leadership. I attended their inaugural Women’s Assembly leadership conference in Arizona in 2023 and it impacted how I think about leading in different areas of my life, including how I move out of the comfort zone.
