The Dangers of Staying in the Comfort Zone

Why Do We Call It the Comfort Zone?

The comfort zone can be easily understood by its name. It encapsulates certain routines and activities of our daily lives. Referring to certain people, spaces, and schedules.

The comfort zone is basically what we are used to in life. The routine we have each day with the same people.

In this zone, you don’t try new things or go to places that you have never been to. It is a space that limits us from our goals and from challenging ourselves.

Not permitting us to grow from any side of the comfort zone is a safe space. A space that hugs us and tells us that everything is going to be exactly how we have had it always.

The Cambridge dictionary defines the comfort zone as “a situation in which you feel comfortable and in which your ability and determination are not being tested”.

This meaning that we are in a place and space in which we used to put a certain amount of effort and don’t have to do any extra work or thinking.

What Does It Allow Us To Do?

The comfort zone gives us comfort because it allows us to not strive. We stay in a mediocre place in our lives in which we don’t challenge ourselves.

The comfort zone gives us peace of mind in which we have don’t have to worry about anything new because we already know what is going to happen.

We know that everything is going to be okay so it allows us to have the security to keep going on the same path.

6 Reasons Why It’s Dangerous

1. It doesn’t let you explore your opportunities and possibilities

When you stay in your comfort zone, you are doing what you are used to. You are not looking for new opportunities or chances.

You are not fully exploring your other options. This limits your growth and carves the path for what you want to do with your future. 

2. You don’t learn new things

Not leaving your comfort zone doesn’t allow you to learn new things. The most important one being that you don’t learn from failure.

Failure allows you to correct and improve things in your life. It also enables you to choose the right path for your goals.

When you don’t leave your comfort zone you also don’t learn a lot of skills that you need for your life further along the way, such as good communication or something more specific like how to behave in an interview. It all depends on what your comfort zone enables.

3. You stop challenging yourself

 To stop challenging yourself means to stop growing. This is one of the biggest issues with staying in your comfort zone.

It makes it harder to get to your goals and maybe even impossible. Reaching your goals always comes with difficulties and challenges. Going through challenges also allows us to learn new things about what happens around us but also about ourselves.

4. Everything becomes a routine

This is basically the definition of the comfort zone, routine. More or less doing the same thing every day with the occasional usual variation.

This sounds boring, doesn’t it? Life should be more about the exciting things that happen although some routine to keep ourselves checked in is never bad.

It becomes bad when it’s all you do and you never spice your life up. 

5. Fear can control you 

When people stay in their comfort zone for too long when they get out they become anxious. This happens when you get used to feeling the peace of mind that you get when change never comes your way and you never have to put any extra effort. Then what happens is that you become afraid to try new things. You acquire a fear of change and of things going a different way. We also start fearing that things get out of control. When you regularly get out of your comfort zone you understand how this works and how you can fix it and you are no longer that much afraid of it happening.

6. Regrets

The worst part about this one is that when you loo back to your life you start to wonder what could’ve been.

This may mean that you are not fully satisfied with your decisions of the past. The comfort zone leads to this since not leaving it is what mainly caused your decisions.

Regrets are something that can hurt a lot, so when you are scared of something but you know it is going to be beneficial for you just do it. 

Conclusion

Not only should we leave our comfort zone more often but we should also expand it so that we feel comfortable with learning new things or exploring our choices.

I encourage you to step out of it little by little. If you have been in that little bubble for a while now, especially with COVID-19 around.

I recommend you start by trying a new dish or cooking something new. Maybe you can even change your daily routine. Let’s not allow what is going on to shut us down.