Expanding your comfort zone

To get into the zone of maximum effectiveness, you must move outward from another zone — your comfort zone. It can be uncomfortable to be highly effective on a consistent basis. It can be much more comfortable to just sit around like normal, not accomplishing anything. We tend to fear and avoid the unknown, even if the unknown is highly positive.

The comfort zone may seem to be a sanctuary, where you feel safe and secure. That’s not the case though. The boundaries of your comfort zone do not keep the bad things out. They only keep you in. Your comfort zone is no sanctuary. It is more like a prison.

The good news is that you can expand your comfort zone. Once you experience something that’s a little uncomfortable, you soon become comfortable with it. So when you leave it, your comfort zone grows out to meet you. To be highly effective may at first seem unusual and uncomfortable, yet even at first you can take comfort in knowing that it soon will seem much more natural and right and, yes, comfortable.