The Science of Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone

Our psychological, emotional, and behavioral inclinations inform what the comfort zone looks and feels like, determined by any number of measures: our habitats, topics of expertise, skill sets, or overall frames of mind. The security we feel in these specific realms can’t always be replicated in other areas of our lives, and

there’s nothing keeping you from it except yourself

Sometimes, all it takes is the proper motivation to exit the comfort zone and grab what you want.

us feel secure and safe, like heaping on blankets to ward off the cold (or monsters under the bed). And yet, if we stayed in the safe cocoon of our bed for our lives, what would we experience? What would we achieve? What would be the epitaph written on our tombstones?

Those questions all have the same answer: nothing.

Everything we want in life is squarely outside of our comfort zones—some closer, and some further outside. Growth, learning, and progress are outside. So are accomplishment, fulfillment, and satisfaction. They lie over the obstacles of fear, anxiety, and the unknown. The comfort zone for most people isn’t about comfort; it’s about retreating from fear and the fear of failure

I also knew what the costs would be if I didn’t jump on this opportunity and how much I would regret not simply sucking it up for, in reality, just a few minutes—these were the sticks. I had a very clear sense of my whys, and so into the plane I went. I wasn’t so focused on the fear itself as I was on what was waiting for if I did or did not act.

We all have comfort zones for a reason.

They are necessary to growing our sense of confidence and showing vulnerability.

I knew what I wanted from this experience

come down and recharge at some point. And when you’re headed back to the comfort zone, hopefully you’ll have gained inspiration and creativity from your time outside it in that effective, productive, slightly stressful state of controlled disquiet.

breaking out of that secure spot.

The problem comes when we allow ourselves to get too settled in a comfort zone.