Leaving our Comfort Zone

When I started teaching, I planned activities based on the months of the year or chose activities that sounded like fun. I did not ask the children for input since I believed my role as a school-age educator was to entertain the children, help with homework, and guide social challenges.

While employing a traditional teaching approach, our program grew, and the leadership hired new educators to join the team. One educator joined the program with a different educational background and philosophy about teaching. This educator suggested ways to work with the children more dynamically. I listened to the educator’s new ideas about partnering with children and developing group projects. The idea of making changes sounded exciting. Still, I was unwilling to change our program model. I told myself the parents are happy, the program is growing, and we have developed an excellent daily routine. I was not telling my colleague that I did not want to leave my comfort zone.

On positivepsychology.com, they define comfort zone as “a behavioral state where 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.” Our desire to perform connects to the amount of anxiety we experience and are willing to tolerate. In my school-age practice, moving into a zone of discomfort while learning to partner with the children created more tension than I was ready to accept, even though the idea of becoming learning partners with the children sounded interesting.

How do we move out of our comfort zone and grow?

As people move out of their comfort zone, they pass from a fear zone to a growth zone. Dealing with our genuine and imagined fears of where we want to go is more challenging than the event we would like to try. I did not want to change how we offered children’s programming because I was worried about the reaction of the children and parents. I was anxious about not knowing how to learn in partnership with the children. I did not want to give up control of my routine and learn a new one. At the time, I did not know about human mindsets and the benefits of stretching out of my comfort zone.

What are the benefits of leaving our comfort zone?

On positive psychology.com, there is an article titled How to Leave Your Comfort Zone and Enter Your Growth Zone by Dr. Oliver Page, M.D. In the article, Dr. Oliver lists four benefits of leaving our comfort zone.

Self-Actualization – Leaving our comfort zone helps us realize our talents and potential. Leaving our comfort zone when it aligns with our values helps us stay in tune with our life as it unfolds. Leaving our comfort zone helps us fight a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged later in life.

Develop a Growth Mindset – Leaving our comfort zone helps us develop a growth mindset, the “belief that our talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others.” (Dweck). Leaving our comfort zone means believing we can stretch our knowledge, possess unlimited learning potential, and turn our energy into learning instead of worrying about not knowing.

Building Resilience – Leaving our comfort zone helps us learn to handle change and face future challenges. Resilience is “the ability to experience difficulties in life and bounce back.” (Everyday Health) Being resilient does not mean that we don’t experience stress. Being resilient “It’s our ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns.” (Amit Sood).

Greater Self-Efficacy – Leaving our comfort zone enhances our ability to face challenges as we work and complete actions to achieve goals. “A person with high self-efficacy views challenges as things that are supposed to be mastered rather than threats to avoid. They approach threatening situations with the belief that they can control them.” (Wikipedia).

Knowing the benefits of leaving our comfort zone, what actions can an individual take to support leaving our comfort zone?

Leaving our comfort zone creates stress, but not all stress is bad. Stress is a part of expanding our horizons and growing. Embracing a challenge or working toward a goal creates good stress. Recognizing and framing the stress we are experiencing helps us grow our comfort zone.

Growing our comfort zone often connects to skill development. Improving our skills in life is a practice of trial and error. The more we fear trial and error, our comfort zone shrinks. Changing our thought process, being open to error as we learn, and the belief we can improve support by leaving our comfort zone.

Even though being in our comfort zone feels safe, it often does more harm than good. To leave our comfort zone, we must take time and identify areas of life where our need for comfort keeps us from growing into our potential and getting more out of life. Try and prioritize one area of life where you would like to make a change. Next, take consistent action to improve that area of life through controlled, gentle practice.

Moving out of our comfort zone can be stressful. As we begin a new practice to support the growth of our comfort zone, be aware that small steps make all the difference over one grand gesture. Often people start a new life practice by going all in. To reap the benefits of personal change, take small steps and adapt to the feelings and emotions that appear as we change.

I experienced many emotions as I moved out of my comfort zone and changed my classroom practice. My classroom journey of embracing child-directed learning and absorbing a new way to work with children involved deep thinking, experimentation, and reflective practice. My teaching partners showed incredible support and patience as we learned new methods of working together. The journey of growing my comfort zone required much work over many years to become the best educator I could be. Expanding my comfort zone made my practice more satisfying and successful. Despite my fears, the parents and children loved our new approach to learning, and the program flourished. The children were happier guiding their learning, and I was more satisfied by taking the time to join them in their learning adventures.

How often do you move out of your comfort zone? What is one area of your teaching practice you would like to change? What small steps can you embrace to begin moving out of your comfort zone?