What Are the Benefits of Breaking Free from Your Comfort Zone?
Most people have heard of the idea of a comfort zone. It’s a boundary between what you are familiar with and what you are unprepared to try. Everyone’s comfort zone is different since people’s unique experiences and preferences will influence what they are willing or unwilling to do. For example, you might be uncomfortable with parachuting out of a plane, but your friend might like the sound of it. Maybe you avoid confrontation because arguing or standing up for yourself is outside your comfort zone.
Why is a Comfort Zone Necessary?
Comfort zones develop out of a need to manage your choices. Without a comfort zone, you would find it much harder to narrow down your focus on what you spend your time doing since you would be comfortable with anything. They also protect individuals from taking potentially harmful risks.
What Are the Benefits of Leaving Your Comfort Zone?
Stepping out of your comfort zone occasionally can help stretch it to encompass more parts of life, giving you a richer and more fulfilling experience overall. Perhaps it was once out of your comfort zone to drive alone in your car, but now you do it all the time, which has benefited you greatly. If people never ventured from their comfort zones, no risks would be taken, and nothing would get done. For individuals, choosing to leave their comfort zone can be a huge psychological step that breaks down hidden barriers and opens them up to more of life.
Ways to Leave Your Comfort Zone
You might feel a bit stuck in your current ways and are now tempted to test your limits by stepping out of your comfort zone. If you are looking for ways to do this, here are a few examples:
Be More Courageous
Courage is about acknowledging your fear and overcoming it. Learn when it is appropriate to take risks and when to hold back. Being courageous might mean sharing your feelings with someone or asking your boss for a raise.
Volunteer Your Time to Help Others
Comfort leads to complacency and selfishness. To avoid this, consider helping other people and stretching your comfort zone to improve other people’s lives. You could help at a veterans charity, step up at community meetings, or even become a foster parent. Being a good person is not always comfortable or entertaining, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.
Find a Balance
Although it is important to occasionally test your boundaries and search for new experiences to expand your horizons, it is also important to know what you don’t want to compromise on. You can adapt and change your less severe boundaries but don’t feel obliged to change your personality completely. It’s about gradually striking a balance and stretching your comfort zone rather than breaking free from it all at once.
