Why do you need to get out of your Comfort Zone to be successful in life?

Why do You need to get out of your Comfort Zone to be successful in life?

Comfort Zone is a psychological state where you feel safe. In this space, you are in familiar territory with a pattern that you are comfortable to be. There are minimal risks, and you are not stressed up.

However, it is dangerous to be in your Comfort Zone for too long. It will become an obstacle to your success path.

To find out more details on why you need to get out of your Comfort Zone, please read further.

Comfort Zone Definition.

Cambridge dictionary defines Comfort Zone as a situation in which you feel comfortable. And you do not have to do anything new or difficult:

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Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as a level at which one functions with ease and familiarity.

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As per Wikipedia – A comfort zone is a psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person. They are at ease and (perceive they are) in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. In this zone, a steady level of performance is possible.

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What is Comfort Zone?

From the above definitions, we can interpret Comfort Zone as a psychological state where you are comfortable. You are in a familiar environment, and you feel that you are in control.

You feel that risk to you is minimal in this space. Therefore, your anxiety and stress levels are low.

Why do you stay in your Comfort Zone?         

You stay in your Comfort Zone due to the below reasons:

1. It is familiar territory, and patterns are routine for you, so you are comfortable.
2. You feel that you are in control of your situation and can handle it well.
3. It is low-risk situation for you, and the adverse outcomes will not harm you much.
4. You feel it is a place where you experience low levels of anxiety and stress.

It looks like a good place. After all, your Comfort Zone will keep you in a comfortable position with a steady life.

Why is your Comfort Zone not good for you?

Comfort Zone, as the name suggests, is a place that keeps you comfortable. There is nothing wrong with this. You do not want to lead a stressful life that causes you anxiety over a prolonged period.

Then what is the problem?

The problem is, if you stay in your Comfort Zone for long, it will cause you more harm than good. It will become a bottleneck for you on your success path. And it will prevent you from achieving the success you have defined.

How does your stay in your Comfort Zone harm you?

If you stay in your comfort zone for long, it can harm you in many ways.

Makes your Life Boring and Unexciting:

If you follow the same routine day in and day out initially, it will be good. However, in the long run, it will make your life unexciting. Your life will bring little or no surprises.

You will agree that challenges in life make it more exciting and fun.

The sense of pleasure you get while overcoming the bottlenecks at different stages of your life makes life interesting.

Hampers your personal growth:

In your Comfort Zone, you do familiar things which are in your control. You follow an easy pattern in your routine life. It keeps you away from learning new things.

You will remain at the same level of learning and become outdated soon. With this approach, there is a danger that you may lose your relevance in today’s highly competitive world.

New learnings will propel you towards personal growth in your career and other aspects of life. You will learn from your mistakes and take steps to make the appropriate course correction.

Prevent improvements in your life:

Comfort Zone being a familiar and low-risk place, will be an obstacle to bring any improvements in your life. It will remain the same over a long period.

You will be risk-averse and not work to bring forth any innovations in whatever you do.

In your life, for any improvement, you will have to take some amount of calculated risk. As per an old saying – There is no gain without pain. You need to take some risk and move forward towards the target state.

Without getting out of your Comfort Zone, there is not much scope for any improvement in your life. And you will get frustrated in the long run.

What are the benefits you reap if you get out of your Comfort Zone?

There are several benefits you get when you get out of Your Comfort Zone.

It makes you creative:

When you get out of your Comfort Zone, you will face a new set of challenges. It will force you to think of innovative solutions to overcome these challenges.

You will need to be at your creative best to find out the perfect solution to clear these obstacles. You may need to try new things which you have not done earlier. Probably you will take some calculated risks as well.

Without a doubt, this will bring some amount of stress as you will experiment with different things. However, this will make you more creative and enable you to achieve your definition of success.

Boost your self-confidence:

When you get out of your Comfort Zone, you will expose yourself to higher risk due to obstacles you face. These may be new to you and will make your life stressful till you find a solution.

However, as you overcome these challenges, you will feel a sense of pride and achievement. You will feel confident to handle any other difficult situation that may come in your life. It will also make you believe in your abilities to handle any future crisis in life.

This boost in your self-confidence will be instrumental in your successful journey in life.

Personal growth:

Once you get out of your Comfort Zone, you will get exposed to new risks and challenges. However, it will also bring you new opportunities which will lead you to growth in your career or other aspects,

You will take some calculated risks and try out various new things. Some of these may fail, but if you strive, you will eventually cross the hurdle. This experimentation may bring you new career or business opportunities which will propel you towards success.

The failures also will not be a waste. You can learn from your mistakes and make correct your course as needed. You might have picked up some skills which may eventually help you later in your life,

These will enable your personal growth. If you do not get out of your Comfort Zone, however, your life will remain stagnant. And there will be no personal growth.

Make you Resilient to Change:

Change is the only constant in life. As you progress in life, you will get exposed to Change and you will have to deal with this. Change can cause a sudden disruption in your life. You will have to make some decisions either voluntarily or involuntarily to deal with it.

You may have to look for alternate options in your career or business. Or, you may need to learn new skills to over the challenges brought by the Change. You may have to bring in some adjustments to your personal and family life.

If you have always stayed in your Comfort Zone, this will be stressful for you. You may feel incompetent to handle this as it has come suddenly.

However, if you have been making efforts to get out of it, you will be able to handle the Change. You will become resilient to change and will eventually manage to overcome any challenges that you face.

Discover a new passion:

Outside your Comfort Zone, while fighting the challenges you face, you may discover a new passion. You may realize your hidden talent in some area, and it may become a passion for you.

You may have multiple talents; however, you may be focusing on only one while ignoring the others. You might not be achieving the desired success while pursuing this in life.

You may discover that the other talents or skills have better chances of success. While experimenting, you might taste success in this area, and it becomes the new passion for you.

Make new friends:

Within your Comfort Zone, you will be in familiar surroundings and will have the same set of friends. When you get out of it, you will end up dealing with new people as well.

They may be new colleagues. Or they may be new associates or people working in other organizations.

Some of them might become your new friends and can help you on your success path.

Summary

You can conclude that Comfort Zone might be good for the short term, but it can harm you in the long run. You understand what Comfort Zone is and the reasons why you stay in this. However, there are pitfalls to staying in your Comfort Zone for too long. Moreover, there are benefits you reap when you get out of your Comfort Zone.

I hope this will motivate you to get of your Comfort Zone and to be successful in life.

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