Trigger Question #92:
I don’t like the expression, “get out of your comfort zone.” It sounds cool, I admit. It hints at wondrous things you can achieve if only you were more discomforted. You know, more uncomfortable, more hardship, more pain, all supposedly equals more gain.
And there’s the rub. We cheerfully scorn the comfort zone by ignoring the misery of the discomfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone is supposed to make you more creative, more productive, able to learn new things, benefit from taking risks, experience life fully, walk on water… Well, maybe not the last one.
And yet, what happens when you feel forced out of your comfort zone? You retreat. Into your shell like a tortoise. You become defensive. Maybe even aggressive. From the safety of your shell.
Can you really do your best work when you are in discomfort? I doubt it.
But I don’t think your comfort zone is the problem. The problem is your complacent zone. If you feel complacent, will you be interested in changing? In improving? Will you want to better your best work? I doubt it.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that comfort is complacency. Or that complacency is comfortable. Consider this definition of complacency: a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements. Whereas comfort is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. (I found these definitions on-line, but I can’t remember where. But I like them.)
You see my point, don’t you? Your comfort zone is not so bad when you compare it to your complacent zone.
Years of being told to get out of my comfort zone has taught me this. Unnecessary discomforts, or even contrived discomforts (here’s looking at you, team building), needlessly distract me when I’m already striving to produce my best whatever. Which is why I like my work zone to be comfortable so that I am free from pain and constraints to do my best work.
As for my complacent zone, well, I’ve been there, done that. And suffered the consequences to boot. What were the consequences? Discomfort, of course. Mainly from a bruised ego.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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