For anyone who has spent time in the personal development space, you will instantly recognize the quote, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
There is nothing more dangerous than getting comfortable and staying there for too long. When you get too comfortable, you get lazy; you get complacent, you find a way to let off the gas. Considering everything on this planet is a race towards success, letting off the gas is likely the last thing you should be doing.
Before we start thinking about how slowing down is an issue for your business, let’s take a moment to discuss the psychological aspect of comfort. Comfort comes from the part of the brain where your behaviors fit a routine or pattern.
This routine leads to a reduction in stress or uncertainty. Reduced stress can benefit you in many ways, such as reduced anxiety and increased confidence. Those are good things.
Having a place of comfort is vital for humans. It allows us a safe zone where we can focus on the benefits we receive when we do take that step off the ledge of comfort.
Without some level of risk, your mind is unable to operate at peak performance.
When you put yourself in a state of fight or flight, this causes a release of hormones into your bloodstream. These hormones include adrenaline; adrenaline causes the heart to speed up, increasing blood flow to your brain, leading to faster reaction times.
This consists of the reaction time of your mind, and it’s ability to solve problems you are facing. Be careful though, too much stress or time spent in this fight or flight mode can be a more significant detriment than intended, leading to exhaustion and a substantial drop in performance.
Why Staying In Your Comfort Zone Is The Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do
If you always push yourself to the point of failure, you’ll likely not only hurt yourself physically; you will lose confidence mentally, further preventing you from taking future actions outside of your comfort zone.
Find that place just outside of your comfort zone where you feel confident in your ability to succeed. When you put yourself under a deadline to accomplish a goal, you create a level of accountability. Forcing yourself to complete a task by a specific day or time creates a sense of urgency.
That sense of urgency will push you to work harder and with more efficiency. If you choose to remain content all the time, you will fail to complete these tasks by their deadline, and it will hurt you. When you consistently meet the goals and deadlines you set for yourself, you will begin to feel more confident.
Having extra confidence in your ability to manage discomfort will make it easier to deal with more significant problems as they arise.
The only way to keep that confidence and continue increasing your ability to handle stress is to keep advancing a little bit further each time you push the boundaries of your comfort zone. It’s almost like lifting weights in the gym. As you continue to add weight to the bar, your body becomes stronger, and over time, the weight you started with no longer requires as much effort to lift.
If you only lift the same amount of weight each time you go, eventually your body will max out, and you will stop growing. That’s why trainers are always pushing you to take that extra rep, to get a little bit uncomfortable. That discomfort is where growth begins.
Remember, if you want to become the most elite version of yourself, you are going to have to be comfortable with getting uncomfortable. You will have to take risks and make mistakes.
Those mistakes will force you to grow. That growth will be the key to your success. Find out how to find and become the most elite version of yourself here.
