Why Leaving Your Comfort Zone Feels So Hard

Jumping out of your comfort zone is likely on many people's list for 2021. But do you understand why it has been so hard to leave your comfort zone in the past — and how you might overcome that fear in the years ahead and move on to the next stage of life?

What the comfort zone means

The term "comfort zone" originates with Judith Bardwick in her 1991 book Danger in the Comfort Zone. The comfort zone refers to a state without anxiety or risk, in which a person adopts a limited set of strategies to maintain steady performance. The management theorist Alasdair White, in his book From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, defines the comfort zone as a psychological state in which a person is already familiar with things and can control them easily, without too much stress or anxiety.

Why do people choose to stay in the comfort zone?

People inside the comfort zone need not face too much stress, anxiety or risk, and need not expend too much energy to secure a steady return. One reason a person is unwilling to break out of the comfort zone is that they are influenced by status-quo bias, an irrational preference for the present situation. The human mind is averse to risk and uncertainty and inclined to seek stability, so people are more eager to remain in a comfort zone where they can secure returns safely — rather than taking risks and trading stability and a sense of security for a greater future reward.

But if the comfort zone fits human psychology so well, why should anyone jump out of it?

Reasons to leave the comfort zone

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs points out that people have a need for self-actualisation — an inclination to develop fully and realise their own potential. If a person spends their whole life staying in the comfort zone, content with present results and never challenging themselves, they cannot keep exploring their potential; instead they miss out on opportunities to grow and never achieve self-actualisation. Conversely, a person must be brave enough to leave their comfort zone in order to explore more opportunities and challenges, growing steadily through trial and error.

Although breaking out of the comfort zone produces a certain amount of stress and anxiety, stress and anxiety can in fact sharpen our abilities and help us perform better at work or in learning. According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, proposed by the psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson, stress and anxiety can have a positive effect on performance. Under a small amount of stress, people have more interest and drive to work; when stress rises to its optimal level, performance climbs to its peak; but too much stress makes people fixate on the stress itself and unable to concentrate on the work at hand. When we leave the comfort zone, we all face a slight anxiety and unease, and that unease can become the drive that pushes us to grow, lifting our work performance and learning ability so that we can take on more of the challenges ahead.

Jumping out of the comfort zone is a goal everyone would like to achieve; the only thing that makes it difficult is our own fear of and anxiety about uncertainty.

How to help yourself jump out of the comfort zone

Facing the challenges beyond the comfort zone invites fear, and even setbacks. When breaking out of the comfort zone, we need not aim to reach the top in a single bound; instead, we can begin with a few small changes, and once we start to adapt to the changes in our lives and the unease that follows, we can gradually explore more of the space beyond the comfort zone. This way we need not face too much stress, and can keep the unease close to its optimal level so that our performance is not affected too much. Every small success can make us more confident in ourselves and more hopeful about the future.

To break out of the comfort zone, we should also adjust our mindset. Leaving familiar surroundings means a greater chance of meeting setbacks, so we need to cultivate a growth mindset to face the challenges. A growth mindset means believing that ability is not innate or predetermined, but can be trained through effort, and that every failure is a chance to learn and grow — so there is no need to fear failure. A growth mindset lets us train our grit, making us better able to pick ourselves up after setback after setback and keep breaking out of our comfort zone.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said: "The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." In this fast-changing era, we should grow through risk and keep building our adaptability. TreeholeHK firmly believes that everyone has untapped potential within them, and through positive psychology we hope to help you realise yourself and build a beautiful future.

TreeholeHK also offers professional support services. Psychological services are not designed solely for those in mental distress; they help you understand yourself better, give you a comfortable space to sort through your thoughts, break through what is holding you back, and find the life you want.