Why it's good to stretch outside your comfort zone

 

Your comfort zone is an established pattern of thinking that is “recorded” in your brain via neural pathways. Neural pathways are connections in your brain that are created each time you learn something new or have a new experience.

Neural pathways are strengthened each time you experience that same situation over and over again. Donald Hebb, a Canadian neuropsychologist known for his work in the field of associative learning famously said, 

"Neurons that fire together, wire together."

The more you experience something, or the more you think about something, the stronger those neural pathways become. This repetition creates your habits, your thought patterns, and your comfort zone.

Think you have big goals that require a big comfort zone stretch? Several years ago, I read an article in Wired magazine about a long-distance runner named Dean Karnazes.

Get this:

·    He ran fifty marathons in fifty states on fifty consecutive days.

·    He once ran 350 miles in three days—without stopping and with no sleep.

·    He’s run the Badwater Ultra Marathon eleven times. It starts in Death Valley, 250 feet below sea level and concludes, 135 miles later, halfway up Mt. Witney, at 8,360 feet. He won the race in 2004 on his fifth attempt.

·    He runs 100 to 170 miles a week.

·    He couldn’t find time to run 4-6 hours a day, so he began sleeping less. He currently sleeps four hours a night.

·    His resting heart rate is 39 beat per minute!

In another interview in Outside magazine, Dean makes an important point that many of us have forgotten:

Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s little real struggle in our lives. Little sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes pretty easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I pushing hard and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.

This rings true for me. I think there are three reasons why we should embrace discomfort by stretching outside our comfort zone, whether we deliberately choose it, or it simply happens to us.

1. Comfort is overrated. It doesn’t lead to happiness. It makes us lazy—and forgetful. It often leads to self-absorption, boredom, and discontent.
2. Discomfort is a catalyst for growth. It makes us yearn for something more. It forces us to change, stretch, and adapt.
3. Discomfort is a sign we’re making progress. You’ve heard the expression, “no pain, no gain.” It’s true! When you push yourself to grow, you will experience discomfort.

A few years ago, I started a daily practice of meditation. It sounded easy enough. Boy, was I wrong! It has proven to be incredibly challenging to sit for thirty minutes straight. But that’s the very reason I value it. I feel like I’m making progress by doing something that isn’t easy for me.

The more you deliberately stretch outside your comfort zone, the more comfortable you will become with doing so. Basically, if you can be at ease outside the confines of what's familiar, you'll feel more confident in your ability to handle what life throws at you

The bottom line is this: we can either be comfortable and stagnate or stretch ourselves—become uncomfortable—and grow. We may think that comfort leads to happiness. It doesn’t. Happiness comes from growth and feeling like we're making progress.

(Check out our post on the Progress Principle)

“Get out and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone.”

                           --Bob Parson, Digital Entrepreneur

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

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