Get out of your comfort zone and achieve your dreams

Stepping out of one’s comfort zone is important for one’s personal growth. How can we expect to move ahead in our careers and lives if we keep sticking to old habits and routines?

Humans are creatures of comfort. Our comfort zone is where the stress and anxiety is minimal, where we are able to know what’s coming next and plan accordingly.

There is nothing wrong with being in your comfort zone but when you get a bit too comfortable and start pulling yourself back from trying to do new things, you should know that it is time to go out there and try to grow and learn. Because if there’s no challenge or goal that one sets, something that’s difficult to achieve, then what new thing would we learn? How would we grow and enrich our lives? I read somewhere that comfort zone is a “behavioural space where your activities and behaviours fit a routine and pattern that minimizes stress and risk”. In our comfort zone, there is a sense of familiarity, security and certainty.

“Being slightly uncomfortable, whether or not by choice, can push us to achieve goals we never thought we could. But it is very important to remember that we don’t need to challenge ourselves and be productive all the time,” according to Alina Tugend in the New York Times. “It’s good to step out of your comfort zone but it’s also good to be able to go back in there again.” Staying in your comfort zone can result in a consistent and steady performance but stepping out of it into a new and challenging task can create the conditions for optimal performance.