Step out of your comfort zone; avoid the panic zone

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Madeleine Shaw, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

“Life begins outside your comfort zone.”

How often have you heard that one?

It’s true, of course. If you never take a risk your world will shrink. It’s critical to our ability to thrive that we test and expand our comfort zones.

I once started a comfort zones workshop by telling the participants that they had 3 minutes to prepare a song about an issue currently facing their team. I would then call on them in random order, draw a musical style (country, opera etc.) out of a hat, and have them perform their song – solo – in that style for the rest of the group.

Safe to say, panic ensued. Quiet, well-behaved panic, but panic nonetheless.

Q. How able were my workshop participants to take on new ideas? To think creatively? To reflect broadly and engage effectively with others? To manage their own physiology to set themselves up for peak performance and flow?

A. Close to zero (one person loved it – there’s always one!).

Venture too far from your comfort zone and you will find yourself in the panic zone. Your body goes into fight or flight and focuses its resources solely on getting to safety. The limbic, primal responses are prioritised over the higher-order, complex thinking parts of the brain. You are not in a learning zone.

Sometimes, we face situations in life that put us in the panic zone. That’s inevitable. We often learn from these situations when we reflect on them later, in the cool light of day. But seeking out panic as a way to learn is not the way to go for most of us.

So where’s the learning zone?

The learning zone is just outside the comfort zone. By stretching into new experiences, challenges and situations enough to feel adrenalised, a bit uncomfortable, but not enough to panic, you are in the optimal zone for growth. You can feel confident outside your comfort zone – and scared.

Think nerves before giving a speech – nerves help when they help you switch on and perform, but not when they send your mind blank.

Think of a rubber band stretching outside the comfort zone, but not so far that it snaps.

But I like my comfort zone!

Of course you like your comfort zone. It’s comfortable! Suggesting that the comfort zone is something to be defeated or overcome is actually counterproductive, for three reasons:

It makes you wrong for liking comfort, when in fact it’s a perfectly normal, healthy and functional preference

It implies you need to be uncomfortable to be doing anything worthwhile

You miss out on the recovery and consolidation that only happens when you’re feeling safe… that is, inside your comfort zone.

Once my participants had the chance to calm down, resettle and connect (over much laughter) they were in a great place to engage with new ideas.

Comfort zone challenges can be daunting because, by definition, they will tip you out into the unknown. There’s a risk you may end up in the panic zone.

Your comfort zone is bigger now than when you were four years old. Expand your comfort zone by stretching into the learning zone, where new experiences are available and you are able to integrate them into your repertoire effectively and easily when you return to “safety”.

Just don’t feel like the only “right” way to grow is to force yourself into terrifying new situations. Like so many of these questions, the answer is to step outside the binary (fear or safety) and find the nuance in between.