Expanding Your Comfort Zone

The concept of the “comfort zone” is discussed in Lesson VI: Fear and Action. In the Lexicon it is defined as “an area of personality characterized by a lack of anxiety, tension or fear which has been created by one's habits. By definition, fears and anxieties lie beyond one's comfort zone.” So to begin with, our comfort zone describes a “zone of behavior” that we are “comfortable” in. This has essentially developed as a result of our habits, that is, our repetitious actions. And to the extent that we venture beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone, we are confronted with greater and greater fears and anxieties.

The concept of a comfort zone may easily be formed into an abstraction. Consider the image below (figure 1). The circle could be said to represent a given person's comfort zone at this very moment. Whatever activities are “comfortable” to the person, exist within the circle. Whereas anything deemed “uncomfortable,” such as fears, for example, exist outside the circle.

Let us suppose that this person is suddenly confronted with the prospect of doing something they fear. Perhaps their responsibilities at work are about to expand and as a result they will be interacting with senior decision makers on a regular basis. This is something they have never done before, let alone routinely. It is not hard to understand that such a change would—even if only initially—stir up various fears and anxieties. Naturally this fear exists beyond the boundary of their comfort zone, as represented by the red dot in the image below (figure 2).

Let us further suppose that this person does not allow their fear to control them. In other words they have determined to act in spite of their fear. In doing so, that is, through the process of consistently doing that which they are afraid to do, they slowly begin to expand the boundary of their comfort zone (as illustrated in figure 3).

If this person continues to act in spite of their fear, consistently over time, they will slowly notice that their fear (of interacting with senior decision makers at their job) will begin to subside. Hence, the activities existing as part of their expanded responsibilities, the prospect of which was initially frightening, have formed into a habit, and as a result have expanded their comfort zone. (As seen in figure 4, this person's expanded comfort zone is represented by the large black circle, whereas their comfort zone as it previously existed is represented by the smaller faded circle.)

It is through such abstractions that we are able to illustrate how a person can grow through confronting their fears. However, it should be emphasized that consistent inactivity can potentially cause one's comfort zone to shrink or atrophy. Thus enabling previously conquered fears and anxieties to resurface and possibly exist once again.