Stay in your Comfort Zone

What crazy idea is this? Wouldn't it be the opposite: get out of the comfort zone? Yes, there are some theories advocating that outside the comfort zone is where magic, development, learning and even happiness happens... and, of course, success. But between us (and I only got to see this in 2018), the verb LEAVE / GET OUT sounds like if you interrupt, you stop doing something, finish, lose something; all terms carrying negative aspects.

Let's see: we already know that our brain's main concern is to save energy, which means that it wants to continue doing what it is already used to; and interrupting or not doing is the exact opposite of that; Daniel Kahneman, the author of Fast and Slow, psychologist, won the Nobel Prize in ... Economics. What? Yes, that was in 2002 and then there was even a "Behavioral Economics". And in his more than 40 years of research, he has proven that human beings value what they lose far more than what they gain.

And I also remember this comfort zone situation with another remarkably successful author (psychologist too), Carol Dweck, who, in her book Mindset, and through many years of research, clarified the issue of the fixed and growth mental model. We are born with a certain "talent" and we will always be that way - limited comfort zone - or we manage to develop new talents - we increase our comfort zone.

And, to close this idea, think about your attitudes as a child and now, as an adult. Normally as children, we are those who think "outside the box", our fear of making mistakes (or concern with) is much less than when adults... And this is, perhaps, the worst role of our society: putting ourselves inside boxes, limiting our creativity (or comfort zone).

Going back to the action of getting out of the comfort zone..., stepping out of comfort = stepping on discomfort, right? And who, in full conscience, would want to go to an uncomfortable place?

Let's go a step further and talk about learning. And that's true in any situation, but for simplicity's sake, let's see how to learn a second language. Do you remember how it started? One, two, five, ten words; then small sentences, listen, repeat, speak, read, write... Always more, cumulatively. Until you are communicating, fluent speaking. Your comfort zone was initially in those ten words you mastered, and then it grew and grew. And you didn't leave that initial "space", you just expanded, grew. It's a natural movement that we insist on not seeing (maybe the speech of going out, doing something new, changing status is more glamorous...)

So, I want to invite you to do an exercise: look at this apple in the article's photo, full of drops. Imagine that the apple is your "possible world" and your comfort zone is one of those drops; you can see all other drops as discomfort zones, or they could be new possibilities for other comfort zones.

This emblematic phrase by Charles Darwin crowns this situation well: "it is not the strongest, nor the most intelligent that survives, but the most adaptable to change". Maybe this is the main characteristic of the human being.

My suggestion, in conclusion, is to group these drops, placing them within your reach, expanding your limits, challenging your mind, and accepting new learnings as a way to discover new comfort zones, making the original bigger and more consolidated.

So, the best I can tell you is to create, expand, grow, enlarge and redefine your comfort zone.

I wish you happiness and success!!