Today May Be A Good Day To Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone

The perfect time to go beyond our comfort zone comes when we least expect it, and when this happens, we only need two things: courage and the firm belief that we deserve better. It is a leap of faith, a step that must be taken with a strong mind and a convinced heart, a change that will finally bring us closer to the person we really want to be.

One thing we all know is that the expression “getting out of our comfort zone” has taken root in our language. It inhabits almost any scenario, media and daily, and the fever that has arisen in the field of personal growth around this concept is such that it is necessary to clarify some other idea.

We could say in the first place that today we are urged almost every moment to do so, to promote change, because change is positive and enriching in itself. It helps us to recycle perspectives, to integrate new energies, resources and to be more receptive to all those opportunities that we have on our horizon and that sometimes, due to indecision, fear or shyness we do not dare to reach.

Advertising, for example, constantly invites us to try new products. That we leave our company or our old brand for a new one, for a better one. Other times, when we tell someone that “I don’t know what to do, my partner has asked me to go live with him / her” , there is always someone who answers the classic phrase of  “do it, jump in, it’s time to go out of your comfort zone ”.

One thing we should be very clear about this term is that it cannot be applied lightly. The original theory of the comfort zone had some basic and essential principles that perhaps we are forgetting. . Because the last thing we want is for that jump to lead us to a free fall. Therefore, you have to know how to find the perfect moment, the ideal moment …

The comfort zone, a space where the temperature is perfect

We have been sold the classic idea that the most magical things grow out of the comfort zone. Now, this phrase has important nuances: magic is within you, and that well-being arises from being in the place that identifies us, that makes us happy, that satisfies us. Therefore, sometimes, it will be almost imperative to scale the walls of that daily and comfortable environment that surrounds us to find something new, something that fits what we really need.

Other times instead, that comfortable area gives us just what we need, neither more nor less, and this is how some people build their happiness. On the other hand, and to understand this term a little more, it will be helpful to find its origin, to know where this concept comes from.

It was in the 80s when a group of scientists investigating the range of temperatures in which human beings can work in optimal conditions without experiencing cold or heat, it was established that there is a thermal comfort area that ranges from 20 to 24 degrees. .

Later, in 1991, a business management book entitled ” Danger in the Comfort Zone” was published  where the author, Judith M. Bardwick, used this scientific term to transfer it to the area of ​​personal growth.

.. well now . And what happens when the anxiety experienced is so low? That the person does not innovate, is not creative, has no incentives, it is an environment where the level of control of our environment is so high that we no longer generate anything new, nothing original.

In 2009, the psychologist Robert Yerkes refined the concept a bit more to talk about the “optimal performance zone”. It is . This small degree of excitement is what pushes us to look for other options, to apply a more innovative, more creative thinking in order to feel truly satisfied, but always having a “certain” sense of control.

Hence, it is necessary to remember an important detail: leaps of faith, without a parachute and with your eyes closed are not always good. Because sometimes, when we leave the comfort zone with too much momentum, we go directly to the danger zone, where we lose the reins of control and exceed that optimal performance zone from which we should all start.

Images courtesy of Anne Soline