Grow your comfort zone to get comfortable doing more of the things in life that matter to you most. Here are three lessons learned from expanding my comfort zone through blogging.
The term "comfort zone" was coined by author Judith Bardwick in her 1995 book, Danger in the Comfort Zone.
“The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”
Her book discusses how employees in corporate America could be more productive when risk and fear were introduced to push them into higher performance mindsets and behaviours.
Bardwick writes that “Psychological research tells us that motivation is highest when the probability of success is 50%. We don’t get involved if the task is too easy or too hard.”
The study on the link between anxiety and performance goes much further back in history to a study by Robert Yerkes and John Dodson resulting in the Yerkes–Dodson Law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1907) as illustrated below.
Source: PositivePsychology.com online article 'How to Leave Your Comfort Zone'
Too little anxiety and we become bored. Too much anxiety and we go into a panic. The optimal level is in the middle where there is a blend of comfort in what you know and the excitement of what you will learn.
Comfort zones are not a bad thing. We all need to have a comfort zone where there is minimal stress and anxiety and where we can feel safe to achieve our daily tasks and goals. But comfort zones can become bad for us when they start to limit our ability to grow, learn and achieve the bigger goals in life that matter to us.
You know when you're growing out of your comfort zone when you start to feel uncomfortable with the "normalness" of every day.
In my origin story and the first blog I ever wrote, "It's Never Too Late to Turn a New Page", I share the path that led me to become a first-time blogger in my 50s. I struggled uncomfortably in my comfort zone for years until it started to wear on my mental and emotional health.
The stagnation that I was feeling was amplified by the pandemic and a series of life changes that lead me into a mild depression in 2020. In my self-healing process, I took up new meditative art forms, relearned long-lost water painting skills, and started practicing gratitude journaling.
Each of the little steps that I took were pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone bigger.
New learning and mastery began to build my confidence in trying more new experiences. The ripple effect of doing more was cascading across all areas of my life and putting me at the optimal level of comfort in what I know and the excitement of what I will learn.
Now when faced with a new challenge or opportunity, my mindset falls on the positive side of the 50\50 chance for success.
Lessons Learned From Expanding My Comfort Zone
This week's blog marks three months since I trepidly hit the publish button on AYCLimitless.com! Taking a moment to reflect, I am surprised at how much my comfort zone has expanded in such a short time and how this growth has benefited my mental and emotional health.
Here are my three key takeaways from my journey thus far. I hope that they will motivate you to expand your comfort zone.
Lesson 1: The Fear is Only in Your Head
The hardest part of the blogging process for me is overcoming the fear that's in my head. "Will anyone be interested in what I have to share?" is the question that runs through my mind as I hit publish on each week's post.
The imposter syndrome runs deep in my veins. Even with my broad life experience profile that includes:
20 years of experience in learning and development.
A rewarding 15-year corporate career where I was privileged enough to have been able to teach, coach and mentor employees from all over the world.
5 years as an entrepreneur of my own consulting business of creating custom learning and development solutions for regional and global brands.
Mother to two amazing generation Z human beings.
Survivor of parental loss in childhood and youth.
Cancer survivor and living with a tumour in my brain.
I feared I had nothing of value or interest to share.
The fact is, my life experiences make me a unique individual with a compelling story and life lessons to share. The introspection and reflection process as I create my blogs have been therapeutic and have helped me to appreciate the adversities and value the strength I gained from them even more.
By pushing past the fear in my head, I am learning to overcome my self-imposed limits.
Read more on overcoming imposter syndrome or turning adversity into strength, read my blogs "Beat Imposter Syndrome with the Power of Personal Purpose" and "Finding Super Strength in Adversity"
Lesson 2: Keep Your Focus Forward on the Objective
In the first month of publishing my website, it felt like I was teetering on an unstable suspension bridge that I was building and crossing at the same time. Each blog is a wooden plank of questionable strength and all I could see were the cracks between the blanks...and how far I could fall.
I was getting caught up in the social media comments and obsessing over website performance data.
Why did people like this post? Why did this post get more responses than the other? What gimmick can I come up with for catchier titles or more entertaining content? How can I drive more traffic to my site?
I was losing sight of the objective of creating my website and getting confused by the minutia of information from other established expert bloggers.
The best SEO strategy
The best keywords to include
How to use hashtags
What categories generate more traffic.
While all these aspects are valid and have an impact on the potential success of my website and blogs, they are not the essence. The essence is providing quality content that supports my objective of sharing knowledge, inspiration and motivation for self-development, self-care and mindfulness
Once I stopped looking down and focusing on the different ways I could fail, I kept my focus forward on the ways that I could succeed.
Lesson 3: Find Courage From Passion and Purpose
The process of writing is a creative endeavour like any art form. It is terrifying to bear my heart on my sleeve with my words and so publicly on my website.
Staring at the blank page each week my mind still questions what to share and what not to share. Do I have enough expertise in this area to write about it? What do I need to do to make the article relevant and valuable to others?
Whenever the article isn't flowing smoothly or doesn't read quite right, I pull myself back to ask, "What's my purpose?" "How does this express my passion?"
When I focus on my purpose and passion, I find the courage to write from my heart authentically. When I am clear on my purpose and passion, the words flow almost effortlessly.
"Self-doubt lives in fragments of thought but purpose lives in the constant beating of the heart."
Au Yin Chan
With every blog, I am living through the stages from the comfort zone to the growth zone. Every week, I am practicing expanding my comfort zone. My ability to move through the fear zone has strengthened not only in my writing but also in other aspects of my life.
Source: PositivePsychology.com ‘Leaving The Comfort Zone’ Toolkit
When Fear Becomes Excitement
My biggest mindset shift as I expand my comfort zone is on the value of my voice, story and purpose. What I used to think was only important to me turns out to have resonance with a vast community of kindred spirits in the world.
I am incredibly grateful for the ability to stir thought, cause reflection and create an emotional connection through my weekly musings. I am humbled to know that people have found my blogs entertaining, informative and inspirational. I am happy to be able to share light and positivity through my words.
My greatest gratitude from this experience thus far is the encouragement I have received from family, friends and a new digital community that has welcomed me. Their support gives me the courage to continue to challenge myself further.
This newfound courage has empowered me to live more intentionally and authentically, with excitement for new opportunities and challenges to come.
If this introverted old gal can learn new tricks and find the courage to do what was once so far outside the boundaries of her comfort zone, everyone can expand their boundaries and everyone should.
The fear is only in your head. You'll get there if you keep your focus forward on the objective. And find courage in your purpose and passion.
"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears."
Nelson Mandela
Here are two informative articles to help you learn more about the benefits of expanding your comfort zone.
5 Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone - Online Article - psychologytoday.com
How to Leave Your Comfort Zone - Online Article - positivepsychology.com
I would love to hear your comments!
Are you growing out of your comfort zone?
What experiences have you had with expanding your comfort zone?
Thank you for spending time on AYCLimitless.com
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