8 years ago · Stuart Downing · 0 comments
Escaping Your Comfort Zone: Taking Advantage of Chaos
How often do you do something different? When were you last challenged? What was the last new thing you learned that helped you grow as a person?
We all need the “optimal challenge”, something just outside of out comfort zone that pushes us to become more. There’s lots of studies that suggest escaping your comfort zone is extremely good for you (when you can do it), but also why it’s extremely hard.
Your habits and routine literally become hardwired into you. And they can become very hard to change.
Put simply, our comfort zone is a behavioural space where our activities and behaviours become part of our routines. This helps to lower risk and stress, giving us a natural state of mind in which we can function and perform our routines habits on a daily basis. We all need this and it can not be seen as neither bad nor good, but if we are never stretched out of our comfort zones then how can we ever change our behaviour, attitude and reality?
The problem is that when we do try to leave our comfort zones, we face uncertainty, which manifests as anxiety and worry. Anyone who has ever done anything new or pushed themselves to live up to the challenge knows that it can be hard work, embarrassing and exhilarating all at the same time (for example, if you are doing your first public speech, performing within sports teams or starting a new challenging job role) as you perform at new heights and take on new opportunities that leave you with moments of vulnerability.
Structuring your chaos
So how can we find a balance? How do we escape our comfort zones and learn something new whilst also maintaining structure and order? As we age and become more settled in our ways, we have formed our belief systems and simultaneously learned our place within the world as we slowly begin to accept and reinforce our identity within the structure of society (our status).
We begin to become ordered, and less chaotic. This becomes the comfort zone. We develop our frameworks to live within, daily habits that allow us to function. What do we to happen to allow us to escape our comfort zones and learn something new? We may indeed that little bit of chaos to take us from our order and routine.
Early in psychology, we were exploring how to bring people out of their comfort zones and how our behaviour and habits are formed. In 1908 (The Yerkes-Dodson Law) psychologists studied anxiety levels and performance, and found that a small amount of anxiety is actually a positive thing for your performance. It has been further proven within studies ever since.
Anxiety primes our body for action, and sometimes that actually what we need to have the energy and the sense of being alert enough to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, to push ourselves to learn something new, create a new routine or challenge ourselves. Called “optimal anxiety”, there is a place where our performance is aroused due to a low level of anxiety and stress caused by the unknown and unfamiliar.
There are more studies that suggest we actually perform higher if we are slightly stressed, and in my opinion it is because we are having to consciously think and learn new skills in order to adapt to our environments. If we are slightly pushed to learn new things (but have a structure in place in order to perform the routine activities) every day then we are in a state of constant learning and development. It helps us be more adaptable as human beings overall but also increases our happiness as we witness our own growth.
Small amounts of threat keeps up engaged and performing optimally
Believe it or not, the anxiety we are almost always trying to avoid can actually be helpful (in small, appropriate doses). If there is no loss that we can conceive, if there is no threat to run away from, then how can we be motivated to ever make a change or escape our comfort zones and challenge ourselves?
Keeping some chaos in your life is absolutely critical to your growth. You must give yourself a structure to work with. This “chaos” could simply be one small change to break up your routine that could completely change the way you live your life. A new job role, starting at the local gym or picking up a new hobby could be all you need to be in a state of optimal anxiety, which leads to higher performance.
Don’t forget to keep to remember to maintain the structure of your life and ensure that your lifestyle is stable and healthy. I should not have to mention that too much chaos can bring with it large amounts of anxiety, which can manifest themselves into many disorders such as panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, PTSD and many other personality disorders.
Create a balance. One foot in the structure, one foot in chaos. A healthy and stable lifestyle with the ability to adapt, journey through new experience, learn new skills and continue to grow as an individual. You should try to push yourself to new limits, challenge yourself to take on new opportunities and make positive, impactful changes in your life. If you want to speak to me about how I could help you as an hypnotherapist and personal coach, call me on 07825599340.
Categories: Self
