Comfort zone

Comfort zone – a much used term but what does it really mean?

For me, comfort zone is that warm, fuzzy place where you know several important things:

  1. You are probably pretty safe
  2. You have an idea of how to do the ‘thing’ you are trying to do
  3. You may have support to do that ‘thing’
  4. You feel at ease doing that ‘thing’

My Comfort zone

My warm, fuzzy comfort zone involves wild swimming, riding bikes down mountains, cooking, spending time with close friends, working in people roles and travelling all over the world.

Have they always been in my comfort zone?

For some of them, it’s a big fat yes. I have always loved swimming since my Mum took me the first time when I was 4 weeks old. She LOVED swimming and that repeated exposure to swimming with someone who took so much joy from it means that I LOVE swimming too. Similar story for cooking, lucky me (and lucky for those people who get to sample my legendary veggie stew and dumplings!)

For some of the things that are in my comfort zone now, it’s a big HELL NO! They definitely weren’t in my comfort zone before. Riding bikes down mountains was a bloody nightmare for me – when I was younger I went with someone who was waaaay better than me, who wasn’t particularly supportive <read bloody unsupportive!> and crashed a lot; I thought it had put me off for life.

Is riding bikes down mountains now in my comfort zone?

For the majority of the time, it’s a big fat hell YESSSS – I grin like a cheshire cat as my 11 year old son and I ride down things I never imagined I could. The joy I take from knowing that I can do some of this stuff, survive (!!) and enjoy it, is why I am so glad it is in my comfort zone now.

But please note, some of it still scares me to death, I still crash and some of it is still well outside my comfort zone (BMX and pump tracks where tiny people zip around with no fear and jump over massive jumps are a case in point).

So, did I buy purchase myself a different comfort zone that allowed me to ride bikes??

Well no, that would be super easy and very convenient wouldn’t it? But it wouldn’t be half as much fun. What I actually did was expand the comfort zone that I already had – cheaper and much more satisfying all round……

More on expanding that comfort zone later.

This month Jane and I will be helping you explore your comfort zone; what’s inside it and outside it, why it’s there and what you can do to expand that beautiful, fuzzy, warm comfort zone to include things that may scare you A LOT at the moment.

We love a diagram at YLLO, so here is a useful one showing the comfort zone and the zones that surround it. We will explore these zones and how to expand that comfort zone into the fear, learning and growth zones. Exciting and scary times, but well worth every minute of effort you put into it.

Question for you: What is outside of your comfort zone that you would like to try?

I will leave you with this question to ponder and explore with us this month. Hopefully we can support you to explore it, understand why it’s outside your comfort zone and give you some tools and tips to start working towards expanding your comfort zone towards it.

Lots of love. Jo x