The comfort zone is an amazing phenomenon. We all have it but not a lot of people know how they can use it to their advantage. In this post I’ll break down what I think how the comfort zone works and how you can use it to build a better life.
The Circle:
You can think of the comfort zone like a circle. Everything within that circle is your comfort zone and everything outside of it isn’t.
Everything you do with ease is in your comfort zone. For example driving around in your car or ordering some food to eat. Tasks where there is no will power needed.
Sadly most if not all of the things we have in our comfort zone won’t bring us any success or happiness. We will be comfortable yes but between comfort and happiness is a difference.
The only way that we can achieve something or pursue our happiness is if we step outside of our little circle. Outside of our comfort zone.
Luckily the comfort zone is not like a border that is always at the same place. It’s flexible and you can expand it.
How to Increasing or decreasing your comfort zone:
We probably have all experienced the decreasing effect of our comfort zone when covid hit. Me for myself had my routine of going to the gym 5 times a week and suddenly covid hit and I couldn’t go to the gym at all.
Going to the gym 5 times a week was a standard for me and didn’t really require that much will power. It was in my comfort zone if you will so. But that standard changed during the covid lockdown.
And before I knew it my body got comfortable with doing nothing. The comfort zone I built up, that included going to the gym 5 times a week, decreased. My comfort zone adjusted and got smaller. Suddenly going to the gym was no longer in my comfort zone and it needed a lot more will-power to go there.
This is a perfect example for a decrease in your comfort zone. If you start getting comfortable and stop challanging yourself, your comfort zone decreases more and more. If you don’t pay attention you’ll be doing just the bare minimum to survive.
Luckily the same is possible the other way around. When you constantly do something your body tells you not to do, or something that is out of your comfort zone, your body gets used to it and the activity won’t be that bad anymore over time.
Your comfort zone increases and what was uncomfortable before becomes a standard for you.
An amazing way to increase your comfort zone is the 40% rule by David Goggins. I really like the the idea behind it and it goes as followes.
The 40% Rule
The 40% Rule is a rule by David Goggins, which he talked about in his book “Can’t Hurt Me”.
For those who don’t know him, David Goggins is a retired US Navy-SEAL who ran more then a dozens of marathons including ultra marathons over 100 km.
Basically the principle says that when you think you have given it your all, you’re actually at 40% capacity and you could give 60% more.
Its like a governor of a car that stops a car after it hits a certain speed limit. The same applys for your brain. We have a govener that locks us in at 40% capacity. As soon as we reach those 40% our brain tells us “ey, stop any further and it will hurt, you better stop…” The only way to move beyond your 40 % is to callous your mind and train it day after day to get over those 40%.
Keep in mind, that the first reaction, when your brain tells you that you can’t go any further, is just your governer talking and you’re actually capable of doing more!
You wont be able to go from 40 to 100% after one day. But you have to know when you think you’re done that it’s just your governor talking and you actually can give more. When you go every day a little bit further you’ll expand your comfort zone bit by bit. You can evolve in a version of yourself that you didnt thought possible before.
You know those people who just seem to work so hard its basically not humanly possible what they get done in one day? Those are exactly the people who pushed out their comfort zone. And now they have such a big comfort zone circle that they do everything with ease what others can’t even imagine doing.
Yes, it’s actually easier to tell yourself they were just born that way and your not that kind of person. But truth is no one is born that way. It’s a long way to get to that state of mind. Everybody starts at the same starting point. We are all the same from the beginning. The question is how bad do you want it, how bad do you want to transform your life.
As exciting this sounds please don’t overdue it. Make step by step and don’t try to make the whole 100% happen after one day. Otherwise you’ll give up before you even started.
Start small and expand your comfort zone from day to day. Soon you’ll do stuff you could’t think of possible before.
Challenge your comfort zone day after day. Do something every day that goes over your 40% and see how your life evolves over time.
The life you want to live is outside of your comfort zone. Step out of it and make the rest of your life the best of your life! – Dario Meyer