Define Your Comfort Zone

We are frequently told to stay out of our comfort zone if we want to grow and progress both personally and professionally.

I agree and in 2017 I created a challenge coin focusing on this subject. I gave it to my team and delivered an accompanying toast extolling the virtues of remaining uncomfortable to achieve growth.

But recently I determined that I need to be more specific with this broad truth.

What exactly does it mean to be out of your comfort zone?

We may know when we feel it, but can you define it?

How can you strategically push yourself beyond something you can’t even define?

Is it anything that resides outside your immediate realm of expertise?

Or is it simply the functions that you execute daily? That’s a pretty narrow scope.

Physical limitations are much easier to define.

Attempting to run a sub 6-minute mile gets me uncomfortable. I can define where my threshold is and easily track my progress.

In the realm of personal and professional growth, the boundaries of my comfort zone have many facets. You’ll likely find the same.

I think it is about defining your boundaries for intellectual and emotional exertion. I also bump into pride, fear and other contributors to an overall sense of vulnerability.

If you can define your comfort zone, even rudimentarily, you will have taken an important step.

But it isn’t one and done. If you make it an intentional and frequent exercise, you’ll find that you actually develop a familiarity with your boundaries. And that’s the best way I know to move beyond them.