get out of your comfort zone essay

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Is It Time to Leave Your Comfort Zone? How Leaving Can Spark Positive Change

Getting outside your comfort zone can feel like a daunting task. But there are simple steps to pushing yourself to achieve what you want.

Jessica A. Kent

You hear it all the time: Step out of your comfort zone. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Nothing grows in your comfort zone.

But is that true? Can getting uncomfortable and enduring the stress that comes with it really help you grow as a person, move you towards achieving your goals, and push you forward to the next stage of your life?

Let’s unpack what “getting outside your comfort zone” means and how it can be your new tool for achieving the life you desire.

The Science of the Comfort Zone

So you want to run a 5k. You see a 5k raising money for a good cause, and you’ve always wanted to run one, so you sign up.

But you’re not a runner — the most fitness you get is walking between classes — so you know being able to run that 5k is going to take some work and be a bit of a challenge.

In other words, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone, or your place of greatest security, and get uncomfortable in order to achieve that particular goal.

How do you know where that boundary is — and is the “comfort zone” even a real thing?

The idea of comfort zones is rooted in research conducted by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. They developed the Yerkes–Dodson Law , which states that performance increases as stress increases, and performance decreases as stress decreases.

However, at a certain point, high levels of stress inhibit performance.

In the context of our 5k example, this means that while you may just want to just walk on a treadmill to train, there’s not much stress in doing so and therefore no increase in performance. However, when you apply stress by upping the speed on the treadmill, it gets a little harder and you have to jog.

Now you’re actually training. But, setting the speed of the treadmill too high to start won’t be beneficial and may result in injury or propelling you off the treadmill altogether.

The Benefits of Leaving Your Comfort Zone

As you train for your 5k, you can see how speeding up your walking pace and pushing yourself to jog — getting outside your comfort zone — can help you develop the fitness, stamina, and mental fortitude to run your race.

But there are a number of benefits to moving outside of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to grow beyond just crossing the finish line.

Achieving your goals . Not everything you want to achieve in life will be easy. By moving beyond your comfort zone into the growth zone, you’ll be able to do just that: grow. You’ll find yourself becoming more productive, achieving more, and reaching the goals you set for yourself — if you’re willing to put in the work.

Boosting your self-confidence . Accomplishment brings self-confidence, especially if you worked hard, challenged yourself, and saw it through. And the boost in self-confidence you get after achieving one goal can push you to achieve more.

Expanding your world . Stepping out of your comfort zone means learning new things, meeting new people, seeing new places, and trying new experiences. All of these can serve to help expand your awareness of the world and how you fit into it and may introduce you to new interests or areas of study you want to explore.

Building your resilience . Challenging yourself to move outside your comfort zone can increase your resilience as well. You’ll gain more confidence in how you handle failure or setbacks and become more comfortable with increased levels of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty.

Giving you self-agency: Finally, by stepping outside your comfort zone often, you’ll learn more about yourself and gain more control over how you want your life to look and what you want to do with it.

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Why It’s Hard to Leave the Comfort Zone — and When You Should

If it was easy to leave your comfort zone, there probably wouldn’t be so much talk about it.

But it’s not easy to do. Moving into that learning or growth zone requires that aforementioned stress, and will likely require facing some anxiety, uncertainty, and a little bit of fear. Yet as humans, we’re wired for survival, and naturally shy away from those perceived threats as much as we can.

This is one of the reasons why it’s so hard to step out of our comfort zones.

Individuals who do want to do it must be mentally prepared. They must also be prepared to change habits and mindsets that may keep them in their comfort zone.

How do you know if you need to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself towards some new things and new experiences?

If you’re not growing or learning new things. You’re not taking chances in your life. You’re not fulfilling your goals or dreams. If you find yourself wondering why you’re not accomplishing things you want to accomplish — making new friends, getting better grades — then it’s time to look at areas where you might be a little too comfortable and passive.

However, it’s also not healthy to push yourself too far all the time. Being in a constant state of high stress can take its toll; humans need to return to the safety of their comfort zone every so often.

Just like you wouldn’t train on the treadmill all day, but may just put in an hour or two, you should step outside of your comfort zone for only certain lengths of time.

How to Leave Your Comfort Zone

Sometimes we’re forced out of our comfort zone by our situations and have to adapt in the moment. But if you want to actively move yourself out of your comfort zone, here’s how to get started.

Set a goal . First, decide what you want to achieve and set a goal. Make it a SMART goal: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

For example, don’t just set a goal of wanting to run a 5k. Set a goal that you want to run a 5k on a specific date, achieve a time of 30 minutes or less, and run or jog the whole race, not walk.

Make a plan . Once you have your specific goal, now you can make a plan to achieve it. If a 5k is on a certain date, you know how long you have to train. If you want to be able to run or jog the whole way, you need to increase your ability and stamina to get to that point before the race. Make a plan for how you’ll get to your goal, which will include steps that move you out of your comfort zone.

Take action . Start working towards your goal, following the plan that you’ve created. As you do, you’ll likely run into the following:

Finding your boundary: As you begin the work, you’ll be able to find where your comfort zone line is and when you’re pushing past it. Maybe you thought running at a certain speed would be challenging, yet you find that it’s actually pretty easy so you increase your speed to have it be more of a challenge. Look for these shifts in your comfort zone boundary.
Confronting your fears: As you move outside of your comfort zone, you may need to face some of your fears as your stress increases. If you’re someone that lets discomfort derail them from action, you may need to get used to that discomfort in order to grow. If you tend to have some limiting beliefs about yourself, you may need to reassess those beliefs as you push forward.

Adjust as you go . Realize that you may not always be successful in your efforts. Everyone has a bad day or two when trying to accomplish something, so don’t let it derail you from achieving your goal.

However, if you’re constantly feeling like the tasks are too hard, you may have gone past your growth zone into the panic zone. Reassess your plan to see how you can simplify the tasks.

Assess and make new goals . Now that you’ve achieved your goal, assess how it felt to move outside your comfort zone. You may realize it actually wasn’t as bad as you thought, and want to do it again.

You probably already know the areas in your life where you need to step more outside of your comfort zone.

Here are some suggestions on activities you can tackle to help you grow:

Take a class in a subject area you know nothing about but want to learn — or take a summer course at Harvard Summer School
Go to a social event and meet new people, especially if doing so is challenging to you
Travel to somewhere you’ve never been before — even if it’s just across town
Have a difficult conversation you might be putting off
Learn a new hobby or skill
Volunteer with an organization in a role that takes you outside your comfort zone

Crossing the Finish Line — and Looking for the Next Challenge

It’s race day! You’ve made your plan for the 5k, committed to training, got outside your comfort zone, and achieved your goal of running the race in under 30 minutes!

Think about not just the achievement, but about the ways in which you grew as a person by pushing yourself outside your comfort zone during the process.

Knowing more about your comfort zone and what it means to step outside of it can help you face new goals, projects, and adventure head on.

And knowing that a little added stress can actually help you grow, expand your world, and increase your self-confidence will help you become more adaptable and open to change as well.

About the Author

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance writer based in Boston, Mass. and a Harvard Extension School alum. Her digital marketing content has been featured on Fast Company, Forbes, Nasdaq, and other industry websites; her essays and short stories have been featured in North American Review, Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others.

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How to Leave Your Comfort Zone and Enter Your ‘Growth Zone’

Sometimes the problem is not being aware of reasons to do so. After all, if the feeling of comfort signifies our most basic needs are being met, why should we seek to abandon it?

What holds people back most of the time is their frame of mind rather than any distinct lack of knowledge.

This article looks at the shifts in thinking required to step outside of comfort and into personal growth. Along the way, we’ll outline useful tools, tactics, and examples to help make leaving the comfort zone as rewarding as possible.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

What is the comfort zone in psychology, from comfort zone to the growth zone, benefits of leaving the comfort zone: 4 examples, 4 tips to support leaving your comfort zone, 7 ways to leave your comfort zone, 10 inspiring quotes, positivepsychology.com’s useful tools, a take-home message.

Now firmly embedded in cultural discourse, the metaphor of ‘leaving one’s comfort zone’ became popular in the 1990s. The phrase ‘comfort zone’ was coined by management thinker Judith Bardwick in her 1991 work Danger in the Comfort Zone :

“The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”

Within the comfort zone, there isn’t much incentive for people to reach new heights of performance. It’s here that people go about routines devoid of risk, causing their progress to plateau.

But the concept can be traced further back to the world of behavioral psychology.

In 1907, Robert Yerkes and John Dodson conducted one of the first experiments that illuminated a link between anxiety and performance.

They saw that mice became more motivated to complete mazes when given electric shocks of increasing intensity – but only up to a point. Above a certain threshold, they began to hide rather than perform.

Corresponding behavior has been seen in human beings. This makes sense because in response to anxiety-provoking stimuli, the options are either fight (meet the challenge), flight (run away/hide), or freeze (become paralyzed).

The Yerkes–Dodson Law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1907) is true not just for more tangible types of performance, such as being given a stressful new task at work, but also in many life areas such as understanding ourselves, relating to others, and so on.

The core idea is that our nervous systems have a Goldilocks zone of arousal. Too little, and you remain in the comfort zone, where boredom sets in. But too much, and you enter the ‘panic’ zone, which also stalls progress:

When leaving the comfort zone, fear doesn’t always equate to being in the panic zone. As the below diagram shows, fear can be a necessary step en route to the learning and growth zones:

Source: PositivePsychology.com Toolkit – ‘ Leaving The Comfort Zone’

It takes courage to step from the comfort zone into the fear zone. Without a clear roadmap, there’s no way to build on previous experiences. This can be anxiety provoking. Yet persevere long enough, and you enter the learning zone, where you gain new skills and deal with challenges resourcefully.

After a learning period, a new comfort zone is created, expanding one’s ability to reach even greater heights. This is what it means to be in the growth zone.

It’s important to state that like most behavioral change attempts, moving into the growth zone becomes harder without some level of self-awareness. Thus, it can be beneficial for clients to consider the following:

How big are their zones? Across every life domain, everyone’s zones vary in size. To leave your comfort zone, you must appreciate its outer limits. Similarly, you must develop an intuitive sense of where your panic zone lies. Taking on challenges that lie somewhere in between will stretch you, leading to growth and learning.
What are their strengths? Understanding and capitalizing on personal strengths can be of great use. Most people have experienced leaving the comfort zone in at least one area of life, and there are usually plenty of insights to be uncovered from this experience.

In reality, the process of moving from the comfort zone to a growth zone may not be linear. Peaks, troughs, and plateaus often complicate the journey. Sometimes, we even need to retreat to the comfort zone periodically before mustering the strength to leave again. Nevertheless, appreciating the steps can help in tolerating uncertainty.

While occupying the comfort zone, it’s tempting to feel safe, in control, and that the environment is on an even keel. It’s smooth sailing.

The best sailors, however, aren’t born in smooth waters.

We’ll explore a few powerful benefits of leaving the comfort zone in the next section.

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Aside from enhancing performance, there are plenty of less-direct benefits of leaving the comfort zone. A full list would require a separate article, so here are four top-line, broadly applicable examples.

1. Self-actualization

For many, self-actualization acts as a powerful incentive to leave the comfort zone. The concept was popularized through Abraham Maslow’s (1943) theory of human motivation, which he described as follows: “ What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization. ”

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs operates like a ladder, with the satisfaction of our ‘basic’ and ‘psychological’ needs being analogous to inhabiting the comfort zone. But whether we’re conscious of it or not, the theory argues our next requirement is for personal growth and fulfillment.

As long as the decision to leave the comfort zone aligns with a person’s values, this shift is akin to making a bid for self-actualization. Why is this important? For one, not striving for growth could mean falling into a state of inertia later in life.

2. Development of a growth mindset

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s (2008) work on mindsets marked a paradigm shift in the field of positive psychology. Her research distinguished between two contrasting belief systems – the fixed versus growth mindsets.

With a fixed mindset, people believe they have set doses of each ability, with a corresponding ceiling on how much they can achieve. Failure reveals inadequacy, and criticism becomes a fatal blow to self-esteem .

The growth mindset means recognizing humans as malleable. From this stance, setbacks become opportunities for learning (Dweck, 1999) and our potential becomes unlimited.

Intentionally leaving the comfort zone goes hand-in-hand with developing a growth mindset. While the fixed mindset keeps us trapped by fear of failure, the growth mindset expands the possible. It inspires us to learn and take healthy risks, leading to positive outcomes across life domains.

3. Resilience and antifragility

Life isn’t exactly a predictable affair; perhaps then, people shouldn’t be either. Sooner or later, everyone faces adversity. A habit of expanding our comfort zone equips people to handle change and ambiguity with more poise, leading to resilience.

Taking this further, statistician Nassim Taleb (2012) introduced the concept of ‘antifragile’ systems, which “ thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors. ” Examples include evolution and immune systems, as well as the human psyche.

While resilient systems bounce back to the same level after a shock, antifragile systems learn to grow from them, reaching new heights. To step outside the comfort zone then is to purposefully cultivate antifragility – so long as we don’t veer into the panic zone!

4. Greater self-efficacy

As outlined by Albert Bandura (1997), self-efficacy is the belief in being able to execute necessary actions in service of a goal. Goals that lead to higher self-efficacy are specific, not too difficult, and short-term (Yailagh, Lloyd, & Walsh, 2009).

Leaving the comfort zone means a phase of trial and error, during which at least some level of success is inevitable. Experiencing this success builds our self-efficacy , with belief in our ability starting to grow.

Like other benefits of leaving the comfort zone, this probably won’t happen overnight. Yet the cumulative upward spiral of achievement and confidence can become a potent asset for anyone.

What follows are four useful tips to support clients in leaving their comfort zones. These are a mix of mindset tips and practical guidance on setting goals.

1. Reframe stress

Physiologically, there’s no difference between anxiety and excitement (Smith, Bradley, & Lang, 2005). Both entail a ‘stress response,’ but whether they’re perceived as positive or negative is a matter of labeling.

Society tends to conceptualize all stress as ‘bad,’ but the idea of ‘ eustress ’ or ‘positive stress’ challenges this. Eustress provides the energy to get through a public speech, go on a romantic date, and so on. These stimuli can be reframed as exciting, propelling us out of the comfort zone.

2. Understand neuroplasticity

An essential step toward internalizing the growth mindset is to embrace neuroplasticity research . Once understood, less courage is needed to make the first move away from comfort because failure itself becomes integral to the journey.

At the core of Dweck’s theory is that humans are malleable and adaptable. Another good way to appreciate her philosophy is by watching this TED talk:

3. Prioritize

Occupying the comfort zone isn’t always detrimental. For example, it might be reasonable to stay in your ukulele-playing comfort zone but not your managing-personal-finances one.

The point is to identify bottlenecks: areas of life where being too comfortable does more harm than good. Encourage goal selectivity in clients so they can focus effectively.

4. Small steps

It’s okay to take small, methodical steps, as well as larger, bolder ones. Leaving behind the comfort zone doesn’t mean recklessly throwing caution to the wind. Every step forward is progress.

Patiently fostering self-awareness while intelligently assessing each zone’s boundaries is a sure way to make the process as smooth as possible.

Do you find it difficult to take on new challenges and step into the unknown?

Does the uncertainty of leaving your current space cause you immense fear? To have a growth mindset is to believe that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work (Dweck, 2008).

But how do we do this? Featured in our Positive Psychology Toolkit© is a tool titled ‘Leaving the Comfort Zone’, which was designed as a visual aid for us to understand the costs of staying in our comfort zone and the necessity to leave this zone to experience growth.

The yellow circle represents our comfort zone. It is the space in which we feel safe and in control. Here, things come easy to us. We know what to do and what to expect. However, no learning or growth takes place here.
To learn and grow, we must leave the comfort zone and step into the fear zone. The fear zone is uncomfortable and uncertain. We do not know what to expect and cannot build on our previous experiences. We may even retreat back into our comfort zone if the fear becomes too much. This is the most challenging part of our journey to learning and growth.
If we can muster the courage to endure the fear zone, we come out on the other side, the learning zone. Here we can begin to acquire new skills and learn to deal with challenges and problems, ultimately extending our comfort zone.
When we stay long enough in the learning zone, we begin to experience that we can change and start redefining ourselves in terms of what we can do, achieve, and feel comfortable with. Over time, we enter the growth zone and experience changes on a personal level.

Leaving the comfort zone requires courage and feeling through fear, but it takes us toward learning and growth.

Having covered the what, why, and how of leaving your comfort zone, let’s now cover seven ways someone might try to do so.

1. Do everyday things differently.

In everyday life, there are ample opportunities to challenge yourself. Turn off your smartphone and television while having dinner, decide what to wear more quickly, or just slow down to take in the surroundings on a walk. These changes break you out of old, comfortable routines.

2. Expand your professional skillset.

Growing your skillset can foster creativity and refresh your self-confidence , as well as increase employability. Skills like public speaking, negotiation, and leadership can represent a new challenge for many people. Investing in them can build resilience, personal satisfaction, and open up more opportunities than ever.

3. Try a new diet.

Many people want to improve their diets and stop relying on ‘comfort foods.’ Doing so often means trying something new.

Sticking to a healthy diet can be as challenging as it is rewarding, with self-efficacy growing as you hit milestone goals along the way.

4. Take workouts to the next level.

Similarly, many aspire to this goal. For some, it can mean running their first 5K, but for others, it might be completing a triathlon.

Aiming high with exercise is emblematic of leaving the comfort zone and a great way to get the ball rolling.

5. Get creative.

Creativity – anything from writing a poem to building a business – usually involves an element of risk. Creative endeavors are about stepping into the unknown, with failing and subsequent learning as expected outcomes.

Exercising creativity is a good way to train yourself to have a growth mindset and let go of a need for perfection from the outset.

6. Challenge your beliefs.

While exploring alternative perspectives can be uncomfortable, it enables growth and insight by challenging entrenched beliefs.

This might take several forms, such as reading varied book genres, diversifying who you talk to, and visiting new places. It’s easy to get stuck in our ways, but this can lead to complacency – a hallmark of being in the comfort zone.

7. Practice honesty.

When employed sensitively, honesty can be a tremendous catalyst for personal growth. Whether being straight with yourself in a private journal or telling someone close how you feel, honesty forces people out of their comfort zone. Through honest communication, we can understand ourselves better and build deeper bonds with others.

Here are ten quotes that encapsulate many of the ideas discussed:

All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.

Tony Robbins

You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

Brian Tracy

My comfort zone is like a little bubble around me, and I’ve pushed it in different directions and made it bigger and bigger until these objectives that seemed totally crazy eventually fall within the realm of the possible.

Alex Honnold

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Becoming is better than being. The fixed mindset does not allow people the luxury of becoming. They have to already be.

Carol Dweck

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.

Abraham Maslow

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Benjamin Franklin

You have calibrated life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure.

Nassim Taleb

The level of effort you tolerate from yourself will define your life.

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

Nelson Mandela

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

PositivePsychology.com is an excellent repository of tools you can leverage in supporting clients to leave their comfort zones behind.

We have a range of various worksheets and exercises designed to help people enter the growth zone and realize their potential.

Here are three examples:

Learning New Skills This tool encourages clients to reflect on times when new skills. The exercise can help clients normalize the .anxiety, apprehension, and even fear that can prevent them from leaving their comfort zone.
Breaking Out Of the Comfort Zone This tool helps clients identify habits or common practices that make their life more fixed. Using the table, they are invited to come up with new and challenging activities to pursue that will make them more ready to deal with the unfamiliar or unexpected.
Adopt a Growth Mindset This intervention moves people toward the growth mindset by providing them with phrases to correct fixed mindset thoughts.

An additional resource that may seem bizarre yet revealing is titled Funeral Meditation . For any client reluctant to depart from a comfortable routine, reflecting on their future funeral could be a remarkable incentive to step into a growth mindset.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, this collection contains 17 validated motivation & goals-achievement tools for practitioners . Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

Recognizing opportunities to leave the comfort zone isn’t always easy; neither is seizing them with conviction.

It’s crucial to cultivate a mindset that lays strong foundations, paving the way toward the growth zone. This includes seeing yourself as inherently adaptable, reframing stress, and believing in your ability to endure fears and doubts.

Every person faces this choice, knowingly or not. You can settle for what you know – the seemingly safe, familiar, and routine. Or, you can become receptive to opportunities for growth, challenging your personal status quo and seeing what you’re capable of.

When this becomes a habit, the benefits to be reaped throughout life are copious. Not only are disappointments curbed and regrets avoided, but we also reach our highest human potential, acting as an inspiration to others.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Bardwick, J. (1991). Danger in the comfort zone: From boardroom to mailroom – How to break the entitlement habit that’s killing American business . American Management Association.
Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development . Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success . New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation, Psychological Review , 50 , 370–396.
Smith, J. C., Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (2005). State anxiety and affective physiology: Effects of sustained exposure to affective pictures. Biological Psychology , 69 , 247–260.
Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder . New York, NY: Random House.
Yailagh, M. S., Lloyd, J., & Walsh, J. (2009). The causal relationships between attribution styles, mathematics self-efficacy beliefs, gender differences, goal setting, and mathematics achievement of school children. Journal of Education & Psychology , 3 , 95–114.
Yerkes, R., & Dodson, J. (1907). The dancing mouse, A study in animal behavior, Journal of Comparative Neurology & Psychology , 18 , 459–482.

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What our readers think.

Fantastic! I’m currently experiencing anxiety due to (situation) and this was exactly what I needed!!

thanks! alot of information

Mine is my emotions. I get emotional A lot. I can’t really stop it. I’m working on it with a counselor right now.

I agree! Everyone should jump out of their comfort zones eventually or at least attempt to! Mine is Public speaking and Im taking a class that will hopefully help me with that!

Hi Jessica,

That’s fantastic! Public speaking can indeed be daunting, but it’s great that you’re taking steps to overcome this challenge. Remember, growth often happens outside our comfort zones. Best of luck with your class! Keep practicing, and soon enough, you’ll find yourself becoming more comfortable and confident in public speaking.

Kind regards, Julia | Community Manager

a very interesting, encouraging and inspirational topic, I was made to understand that to be an achiever. you most move away from your comfort zone.

Thank You! We all need to get out of our comfort zone in order to grow to the next level according to the goals we have in life!

Very good article.I just decided to leave my comfort zone and spotted this website.Very helpfull with the tools & tips!

Thank you for sharing, I am greatly inspired. I have been stuck for a very long time. Am already working on myself to come out of my comfort zone and am happy that i have taken some of the steps mentioned here

I would love to try ‘be honest in all situations’ as my challenge. I agree

it have been very important article to make a choice to get out of my comfort zone. very powerful Dr.

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3 Goal Achievement Exercises Pack

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

If you told me I would be playing a sport called squash at 11 years old, I would call you crazy. But in seventh grade, I was at a new school 10 times bigger than my last one. I felt like a little fish in a big pond. I was quiet, withdrawn, and very introverted. A lot of the time, I stayed where I was comfortable.

During the first week of school, a group of people visited the school and they introduced themselves as Squashbusters. At that time, I’d only heard of Squash once before, but I didn’t really know what it was. Because the program combined the sport of squash with academic support, mentoring, and service opportunities, I decided to sign up. It’s been six years and this program has made a monumental difference in my life.

Being a part of SquashBusters is a program that really pushed me out of my shell to the point where I’ve grown accustomed to challenging myself. In SquashBusters, they tell us to push ourselves past our limits on the squash courts, but that mindset has transferred to other areas of my life as well. From team trips and tournaments to cringy karaoke moments and participating in eccentric traditions like our annual SquashBusters Olympics, my comfort zone has steadily grown larger. My peers brought out a side of me I didn’t even know existed. I haven’t transformed completely from introvert to extrovert, but I’ve become more social as the years go by.

At Hopkins, I want to do something similar. I want to try new things and embrace the campus traditions. Even though I will develop intellectually from the many academic classes and clubs/activities offered on campus, I feel as though a true community is birthed from exploring beyond what one’s used to. From traditions like Blue Jay Opening Day and the Spring Fair to the many world-changing clubs like the Amnesty International club and the Foreign Affairs Symposium, the different ways to be involved in the Hopkins community is limitless and invigorating and I can’t wait to be a part of the Hopkins family.

Admissions Committee Comments

Samuel’s essay is a reflection on pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone which is not only an important life lesson but also something that Hopkins students do every day. Our students push the boundaries of discovery, are faced with challenges in and out of the classroom, and pursue newfound passions. By growing accustomed to challenging himself, Samuel exemplifies these characteristics and is able to take the lessons he has learned on the squash court into other areas of his life. He shows that if given the opportunity, he would flourish on our campus given the variety of academic and extracurricular opportunities and that he is equipped with the tools to overcome whatever challenges he is faced with.

“My advice to students who are currently writing their essays is to remember that the first draft is rarely going to be good, so just write as much as you can even if it’s incomprehensible. Also give yourself a lot of time for revisions from peers, teachers, and even self revisions.” Samuel, Boston, Massachusetts

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The Powerful Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

And how to do it, one step at a time.

Haley is a Wisconsin-based creative freelancer and recent graduate. She has worked as an editor, fact checker, and copywriter for various digital and print publications. Her most recent position was in academic publishing as a publicity and marketing assistant for the University of Wisconsin Press

Why Some Discomfort Is Healthy
Why We Stay in Our Comfort Zone

The Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

How to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Constantine Johnny/Getty Images

Comfort and growth are like oil and water: They don’t go together. You’ve probably heard some iteration of this before. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously believed that comfort crushes creativity and promotes conformity. Even modern-day self-help entrepreneur Tony Robbins comments on this paradox of life , writing, "too much certainty, and we won’t fulfill our need for growth and new experiences. But too much uncertainty can lead to anxiety and lack of productivity."

Comfort generally refers to a state where our needs are met, so we are at ease. We are wired to seek comfort and certainty because it means safety and security. Retreating to our comfort zones can recharge our batteries.

However, a lack of risk-taking results in a lack of growth. Eventually, progress plateaus. Pushing the envelope and trying new things challenges our beliefs, changes our mindset, and helps us reach our full potential (not to mention that exposing yourself to new things is one of the best ways to keep your brain sharp ). But doing so is often easier said than done.

Why (Some) Discomfort Is Actually Good for Us

One reason it’s important to embrace some uncertainty and discomfort is that the true magic of life typically happens outside of our comfort zones. In 1907, psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson studied the relationship between stress and performance. Now called Yerkes-Dodson Law, this theory helps us understand how a certain amount of anxiety and tiny bit of stress actually help us.

Imagine a bell-shaped curve on a graph. On the Y-axis or vertical line on the left, you have performance (with the lowest level/worst performance at the bottom). The X-axis or horizontal line represents stress levels (the lowest amount of stress on the left and highest amount of stress on the right). Initially, low anxiety or pressure equals poor performance. This is how you feel when you’re bored or disengaged—you’re on autopilot.

As arousal increases, so does performance, eventually hitting the optimal level of anxiety, or as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi later dubbed it, "flow," a state of peak self-regulation where you’re totally in the zone and focused solely on the task in front of you. When we enter the flow state , we experience intense concentration, spontaneous waves of creativity, and immense joy. If you’ve ever seen a musician play live, they often look lost in the music. At this peak, there are just enough stress hormones—adrenaline, cortisol—to wake us up and fully engage us.

But when stress continues to increase, it tips past the point of being helpful, and we become overwhelmed, frantic, or scatterbrained—and performance drops. It becomes hard to focus or retain information. In short, a healthy amount of stress and stimulation rises us to the occasion, but too much is counterproductive to innovation and seriously affects our mental and physical health.

This sweet spot of stress applies to many aspects of our lives—in jobs, sports, social settings, creative pursuits, and even how we approach learning.

Why We Like to Stay Within Our Comfort Zone

If we know it’s good for us to feel some level of discomfort in order to grow and improve, why is it so hard for many people to step outside of their comfort zone? Pninit Russo-Netzer, PhD, a researcher and Founder of the Academic Training Program for Logotherapy at Tel-Aviv University in Israel, explains that evolutionarily, people are strongly motivated to feel competent and in control, and they prefer clarity and predictability over ambiguity and uncertainty. Trying things outside our comfort zone can feel threatening, especially if those things challenge our need to feel competent or in control.

This could explain why taking a small step outside of our comfort zone, such as trying food we’ve never had before, seems more doable than moving to a new country where we don’t speak the language or know anyone. Both are unpredictable, but not liking a new food likely won’t challenge our competence or feel all that threatening.

"Extensive research suggests that when individuals are faced with decisions, they tend to maintain the status quo," Russo-Netzer explains. "Maintaining the default requires less mental effort and psychological threat than change." In other words, the potential costs of change feel more significant than their potential benefits.

Russo-Netzer’s research on this topic has found that for people who were relatively less happy, engaging in activities outside their comfort zone boosted their life satisfaction. Through her studies, here are some benefits she’s observed when people step outside their comfort zones.

Self-Integrity and Self-Efficacy Self-integrity refers to peoples’ view of themselves as morally and adaptively adequate. Having self-integrity is empowering. Overcoming a challenge outside of one’s comfort zone, rather than avoiding it, can strengthen self-integrity as people attain greater competence and confidence in navigating uncertainty and unpredictability. Although going outside one’s comfort zone may be stressful, it is unlikely to be as aversive as people imagine it will be. Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one has the skills necessary to do a task. By pushing beyond our limits, we realize we are capable of more and can thrive in challenging circumstances.
Growth Mindset Someone with a growth mindset believes they can expand their abilities through effort and practice. The term was coined by psychologist Carol Dweck, who differentiated between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe they were dealt particular cards in life, and that is that. There is a ceiling to what they can achieve, so trying new things is terrifying and pointless. People with a growth mindset believe they can change and grow and expand. This mindset gives us room to try new things.
Reduced Regret Research suggests that people tend to regret the actions they did not take rather than the actions they did, and they tend to find excuses to miss many of the seemingly risky opportunities in their lives for growth.
Resilience and Antifragility The practice of stepping outside one's comfort zone prepares them to deal with unpredictable life stressors. The term "antifragility" was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an essayist and mathematical statistician, and refers to the ability to gain strength from adversity. "Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness," he’s quoted as saying. "The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better."
Self-Actualization In short, this means achieving one’s full potential. People who go outside of their comfort zone may discover new opportunities in their environment and meet new people to help them grow into the best versions of themselves.

How to Get Out of—and Expand—Your Comfort Zone

Don’t worry; stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t have to involve massive changes that uproot your life. Even small acts can lead to increased life satisfaction, Russo-Netzer confirms. But deviating from what’s familiar requires a bit of reflection and self-awareness.

The psychologist Lev Vygotsky coined the term "zone of proximal development," suggesting that every person has their own unique range of growth potential in various areas of their life. (What you might fight scary and uncomfortable is nothing at all to someone else—and vice versa.)

A first step to becoming more aware of your unique range of comfort and learning zones would be to write down all the things you would like to try that are different from what you usually do. It could be trying a new workout class or finally learning to play the guitar. Then, break them down into concrete actions, schedule a specific time for one activity from the list, and document your experience.

To expand your comfort zone gradually, pick challenges you are genuinely interested in. And remember, this experience should be an opportunity for you to learn something new about yourself. Create space for curiosity and engagement rather than judgment.

"We can train our growth muscle to expand our comfort zone through regular exposure to new experiences in familiar places," Russo-Netzer says. "What does it mean for you to surprise yourself? When was the last time you did something for the first time? It may mean trying out a new hobby, experimenting with a new taste, smiling or complimenting a stranger on the street, or even behaving like a tourist in your neighborhood."

Godefroid ME, Plattfaut R, Niehaves B. How to measure the status quo bias? A review of current literature . Manag Rev Q. 2022. doi:10.1007/s11301-022-00283-8

Russo-Netzer P, Cohen GL. ‘If you’re uncomfortable, go outside your comfort zone’: A novel behavioral ‘stretch’ intervention supports the well-being of unhappy people . J Posit Psychol. 2023;18(3):394-410. doi:10.1080/17439760.2022.2036794

Towers A, Williams MN, Hill SR, Philipp MC, Flett R. What makes for the most intense regrets? comparing the effects of several theoretical predictors of regret intensity . Front Psychol . 2016;7:1941. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01941

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, examples of stepping outside your comfort zone.

Hey guys, I need some help! I'm working on a college essay and it's about the last time I stepped outside of my comfort zone. What are some good examples that I can use as inspiration? Thanks in advance!

Hey there! I'd love to help by providing a few examples that you can draw inspiration from for your college essay. It's important to remember that your essay should be a reflection of your own personal experiences, so try to think deeply about the times you've stepped outside your comfort zone and how they've shaped you.

1. Trying a new hobby or skill: For example, you may have decided to take up a new instrument or learn a different language despite having no previous experience. This could show your ability to adapt and your willingness to learn from trial and error.

2. Overcoming a fear: This could be anything from conquering your fear of heights by going ziplining or rock climbing, to overcoming stage fright by giving a speech in front of a large audience. In this scenario, you would demonstrate resilience and growth by facing your fears head-on.

3. Taking a leadership role: Perhaps you stepped up to lead a project or group that you had no prior experience with, whether in school or a community setting. In doing so, you can showcase your ability to take initiative and collaborate with others.

4. Traveling alone: If you've ever taken a solo trip, whether it be to another country or a simple weekend getaway, this could be a great experience to discuss. Traveling alone demonstrates independence, self-reliance, and adaptability as you navigate unfamiliar environments.

5. Engaging in difficult conversations: This could involve discussing sensitive or controversial topics with people who hold different opinions or come from different backgrounds. By doing so, you could demonstrate emotional intelligence, open-mindedness, and respect for others' perspectives.

When choosing your example, make sure it's authentic and meaningful to you. The admissions officers want to get an insight into who you are and what you value, so the more personal and unique your story is, the more it will resonate with them. Good luck with your essay!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Don't Let Your Comfort Zone Be a Barrier

10 tips to help build the confidence needed to leave your comfort zone..

Posted May 24, 2024 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

What Is Fear?
Find a therapist to combat fear and anxiety
Too often, fear of leaving our comfort zone keeps us from achieving the goals we'd like to achieve.
Research shows that people who stretch beyond their comfort zones are happier than those who do not.
When people try new things, they enjoy an enhanced feeling of courage, which builds confidence.

Just like everyone has their own unique personal space needs, we also all have our own unique comfort zones. The purpose of these entities is a bit paradoxical: personal space boundaries keep others out, and our comfort zones keep us in. Yet until we’re able to move beyond what is comfortable for us, we won’t be able to grow or develop beyond our self-imposed limits. Until you get outside your comfort zone and consider alternative ideas, you won’t really know what you “know” or even know “why” you believe what you believe.

Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Not only does stretching past your comfort zone allow you to grow, but it also enhances your happiness in life. The less happy you are with your life, the greater the positive change will be, as a matter of fact (Russo-Netzer & Cohen, 2023). Choosing how to stretch yourself beyond the familiar can be more satisfying, too, than being assigned a particular activity. In this study, researchers found that the most rewarding activity is one that stretches you to provide support or engage with others. Altruism always provides the benefactor with an intangible boost equal to or greater than the tangible boost the beneficiary receives.

It's true that doing something beyond your normal range of activities can induce fear . In the Russo-Netzer and Cohen (2023) study, while 41 percent of the “comfort zone breakers” expressed feelings of fear, 70 percent described their feelings of courage at breaking out of their comfort zone. In fact, facing a fear was a strong motivator for many of the participants in their choice of activities. Being able to confront a fear and overcome it provides a boost to your sense of self, and your brain responds with a boost of dopamine . There’s less stress on your body, too, the next time you are facing the entity or activity that once caused your fear. It’s a win-win all around.

Ten Tips for Bursting the Comfort Zone Bubble

The Outcome Focus . First and throughout the “stretch,” focus on the benefits of stepping outside your comfort zone. What is your hoped for outcome and what will you gain from your courageous act? When we remind ourselves of the benefits, it can help us move through our fear.
Look the Worst-Case Scenario in the Eyes and Prepare to Counter It . To prepare for results that might not be as idyllic as hoped, do a worst-case scenario run-through in your mind. Play out the scene and plan your best response to the worst-case scenario. This can help you feel more prepared to take the risk of stretching.
Visualize Your Win. Rather than just dwelling on the possibility of the worst case happening, visualize yourself succeeding! Visualize yourself meeting new people, doing new things, finding new adventures, and visualize the satisfaction you’ll feel for being able to make it to the metaphorical finish line, just like runners do before a race.
Lessons From Pavlov’s Dog. Tune into what each successful step towards your goal looks like and reward yourself when you hear that inner voice telling you that you’re one step closer. Let the rewards become associated with doing what is not always easy to do—stretching further than you normally do.
Exposure Therapy . Break down the ultimate goal into several increasingly challenging mini- goals that increase your “exposure” to the situation as you go. If you want to stretch yourself to join a new exercise class, for instance, you might break this down into steps such as surfing the internet to find potential classes; reading reviews and checking out locations; calling the center to ask about class times; signing up or mentally committing to attend a free trial class; and finally, showing up and entering the class.
The Band-Aid Approach. Just jump into the new situation feet first! Take a deep breath and stretch beyond your comfort zone, doing the new thing that is calling you to be done. It may sting a bit as you strip off the limits you’d placed on yourself, but the sting fades fast and the transition is done.
Embrace Tragic Optimism . If you hope for the best but expect the worst, you won’t be disappointed. Remember that things are seldom as good as they are or as bad as they seem. Embrace hope, knowing that things may not turn out the way you want. But this allows you to formulate a Plan B, if needed.
Own Your Fear. It’s totally okay to be afraid of doing something different—change isn’t easy, and it can be scary to break the safe comfort zone bubble you’ve created. But when we name our fear and break it down into its parts, we gain a greater sense of control and we’re better able to tame the fear once we’ve named it.
Revisit Prior Accomplishments. When we’re preparing for a new challenge, sometimes the most effective way of building our confidence is by reminding ourselves of past successes. Success breeds success and when we’re able to capture in our mind that feeling of accomplishment from a challenging task in the past, we are stoking our self-esteem and preparing ourselves for another win.
Bring a Friend or Connect with People who Are Already “There.” We all remember the buddy system back in elementary school or swim class, it can feel so much safer when you’ve got a companion who’s there to keep an eye on you just like you’re keeping an eye on them. When moving beyond your comfort zone, it can feel much easier when you’ve got a companion bursting through with you. If there’s not someone to fill that role, connecting with people who’ve already done what you want to do is another great way to make the stretch easier. Whether you’re connecting with people who are in a career you’re thinking of trying, belong to an organization you’re thinking of joining, enjoy the hobby or adventure you’re thinking of trying, or are in a life stage you’re considering entering, getting the low down on the lay of the land can minimize much of the fear of the unknown that is baked into a person’s comfort zone.

Russo-Netzer, P., & Cohen, G. L. (2023). ‘If you’re uncomfortable, go outside your comfort zone’: A novel behavioral ‘stretch ‘intervention supports the well-being of unhappy people. The Journal of Positive Psychology , 18 (3), 394-410.

Suzanne Degges-White, Ph.D. , is a licensed counselor and professor at Northern Illinois University.

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Comfort Zone / Leaving A Comfort Zone Is Crucial To Make Achievement

Leaving A Comfort Zone Is Crucial To Make Achievement

Category: Life , Philosophy
Topic: Comfort Zone , Human Nature

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