Are you living in your comfort zone?

First Published 1 July 2021

I’ve had a number of conversations over the last wee while about living in our comfort zones or pushing beyond.  In fact my book club is just finishing up reading ‘Year of Yes’ by Shonda Rhimes.  The book talks about when Shonda accepted a challenge to say yes for a year – which took her completely out of her comfort zone.

These conversations threw up many thoughts – ranging from ‘it’s comfy here why would I want to leave’, the comfort zone is a safe space but are we truly living if this is where we hang out, all the way through to ‘life only happens when you step out of your comfort zone’.  I think there are merits to being in the comfort zone – but, I do think we need to step beyond to allow change to happen – and once the change has happened we can notice that our comfort zone got a whole lot bigger.

Perhaps the first step is to realise that we are in a comfort zone though – and then we can decide do we want to stay here, push our boundaries or take a huge leap beyond them.  All 3 of these options can be the right decision for us – as long as it is a decision we have made for ourselves.  Have you noticed where you are?  Is it easier to notice with your friends and family if they are in their comfort zone or if they are stepping beyond?

In the book, Shonda talks about enjoying life more, being completely mentally present, being happy – all because she stepped out of her comfort zone and said yes!

Here’s one of the first things she said yes to – well worth a watch/listen as she delivers the commencement speech at Dartmouth.

So, are you going to find something to work towards that you may need to take the leap for?  (As you can see in the image above – that was me getting ready to take the leap from a 15+ ft tower in to a pit of water at Tough Mudder a wee while ago now – I might be overdue a leap…) If you have a challenge in mind, I’d love to hear about it (drop a comment below) – and if you need support for it hit the contact and we can arrange a chat!