Attitude #4: Comfort Zone—Stretch It

As two caterpillars were returning from a day of fun in the sun, they noticed a beautiful butterfly overhead. One caterpillar looked at his friend and said, "Gosh, look at that. You'd never get me up there."

This classic comfort-zone syndrome is familiar to most of us. We go through life living within our limited range of experiences, our comfort zone, hesitant to explore new experiences and venture into the discomfort zone. The discomfort zone is unfamiliar territory outside of our existing inventory of experiences. A comfort zone includes life experiences that feel natural, safe, and normal to us. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

To further our understanding of the comfort zone we must discuss our subconscious minds. No doubt you have some awareness of the workings of your subconscious, as hundreds of books discuss the subject. My interpretation of the subconscious mind is that it represents an inventory of all our life experiences, a warehouse full of perceptions, beliefs, and self-images. Our subconscious mind is our comfort zone.

All our conscious thoughts and daily experiences, positive or negative, contribute to the building of our subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind thinks in pictures. We become what we see. If we think failure, we get it. If we think success, we enhance our chances of achieving it. Henry Ford said it best, "Whether you think you can or can't, you are probably right." Our subconscious mind's impact on our behavior is so all-embracing that it becomes the single biggest barrier to growth, to stretching. Our subconscious rules! We minimize stress and anxiety when we act within what is appropriate to our subconscious. If we see ourselves as losers, then we are. But as Zig Ziglar says, "Failure is an event, not a person." Remember that.

Most of us are risk averse—we are constantly searching for security, content to live within our established comfort zones. These life experiences or behaviors have been repeated for a long time; we take comfort in the predictability of the outcome. We respond within our established repertoire of behaviors—our comfort zone. Stretching our comfort zone involves embracing a totally new activity, something never before experienced: bungy jumping, skydiving or, for some of us, making cold calls! It must be a totally new adventure, never before experienced, to qualify as a stretch. I'm not talking about going to a new restaurant—that doesn't cut it as a stretch. As the saying goes, even a turtle has to stretch it's neck out to get ahead.

Venture into the Discomfort Zone
How To Stretch: Two Methods