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I moved from Zimbabwe to England by myself, which was right out of my comfort zone.

Check out this blog post which goes into the science behind the 'comfort zone.' I can relate to all of the benefits described here.

The ability to deal with change and be comfortable with uncertainty are both skills I harnessed at a young age.

This makes me an ideal candidate to offer support to the University stakeholders as they adapt to these unique times.

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Routines can be stable and comforting, but they can also turn stale and confining over time. All those inspirational messages telling you to break out of your comfort zone aren't just trying to sell you bungee cords. Doing something new and potentially frightening helps stave off burnout and is good for your brain. Still, it's pretty hard to shake yourself out of a routine, and there's plenty of science explaining why-and how to do it.

It's important to push the boundaries of your comfort zone, and when you do, it's kind of a big deal. But what is the "comfort zone" exactly? Why is it that we tend to get comfortable with the familiar and our routines, but when we're introduced to new and interesting things, the glimmer fades so quickly? Finally, what benefit do we derive from breaking out of our comfort zones, and how do we do it? Answering those questions is a tall order, but it's not too hard to do. Let's get started.

The science of your "comfort zone," and why it's so hard to leave It

Simply, your comfort zone is a behavioral space where your activities and behaviors fit a routine and pattern that minimizes stress and risk. It provides a state of mental security. You benefit in obvious ways: regular happiness, low anxiety, and reduced stress.

The idea of the comfort zone goes back to a classic experiment in psychology. Back in 1908, psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson explained that a state of relative comfort created a steady level of performance In order to maximize performance, however, we need a state of relative anxiety-a space where our stress levels are slightly higher than normal. This space is called "Optimal Anxiety," and it's just outside our comfort zone. Too much anxiety and we're too stressed to be productive, and our performance drops off sharply.

The idea of optimal anxiety isn't anything new. Anyone who's ever pushed themselves to get to the next level or accomplish something knows that when you really challenge yourself, you can turn up amazing results. More than a few studies support the point. However, pushing too hard can actually cause a negative result, and reinforce the feeling that challenging yourself is a bad idea. It's our natural tendency to return to an anxiety-neutral, comfortable state. You can understand why it's so hard to kick your brain out of your comfort zone.

Even so, your comfort zone is neither a good or bad thing. It's a natural state that most people trend towards. Leaving it means increased risk and anxiety, which can have positive and negative results (which we'll get to in a moment), but don't demonize your comfort zone as something holding you back. We all need that head-space where we're least anxious and stressed so we can process the benefits we get when we leave it.

What you get when you break free and try new things

Optimal anxiety is that place where your mental productivity and performance reach their peak. Still, "increased performance" and "enhanced productivity" just sound like "do more stuff." What do you really get when you're willing to step outside of your comfort zone?

You'll be more productive. Comfort kills productivity because without the sense of unease that comes from having deadlines and expectations, we tend to phone it in and do the minimum required to get by. We lose the drive and ambition to do more and learn new things. We also fall into the "work trap," where we feign "busy" as a way to stay in our comfort zones and avoid doing new things. Pushing your personal boundaries can help you hit your stride sooner, get more done, and find smarter ways to work.

The benefits you get after stepping outside of your comfort zone can linger. There's the overall self-improvement you get through the skills you're learning, the new foods you're trying, the new country you're visiting, and the new job you're interviewing for. There are also the soft mental benefits you get from broadening your horizons.

How to break out of your comfort zone

Outside your comfort zone can be a good place to be, as long as you don't tip the scales too far. It's important to remember there's a difference between the kind of controlled anxiety we're talking about and the very real anxiety that many people struggle with every day. Everyone's comfort zone is different, and what may expand your horizons may paralyze someone else. Remember, optimal anxiety can bring out your best, but too much is a bad thing.

Here are some ways to break out (and by proxy, expand) your comfort zone without going too far:

Do everyday things differently. Take a different route to work. Try a new restaurant without checking Yelp first. Go vegetarian for a week, or a month. Try a new operating system. Recalibrate your reality. Whether the change you make is large or small, make a change in the way you do things on a day-to-day basis. Look for the perspective that comes from any change, even if it's negative. Don't be put off if things don't work out the way you planned.

There are lots of other ways to stretch your personal boundaries. You could learn a new language or skill. Learning a new language has multiple benefits, many of which extend to learning any new skill. Connect with people that inspire you, or volunteer with an organization that does great work. Travel, whether you go around the block or across the globe. If you've lived your whole life seeing the world from your front door, you're missing out. Visiting new and different places is perhaps one of the best ways to really broaden your perspectives, and it doesn't have to be expensive or difficult to do. The experiences you have may be mind-blowing or regrettable, but that doesn't matter. The point is that you're doing it, and you're pushing yourself past the mental blocks that tell you to do nothing.

Trying new things is difficult. If it weren't, breaking out of your comfort zone would be easy and we'd do it all the time. It's just as important to understand how habits form and how we can break them as it is to press yourself out of your comfort zone by doing specific things.

Why it's important to return to your comfort zone from time to time

You can't live outside of your comfort zone all the time. You need to come back from time to time to process your experiences. The last thing you want is for the new and interesting to quickly become commonplace and boring. This phenomenon, called hedonistic adaptation, is the natural tendency to be impressed by new things only to have the incredible become ordinary after a short time. It's why we can have access to the greatest repository of human knowledge ever created (the internet) at our fingertips (on our smartphones) and still get so bored that all we think of is how quickly we can get newer, faster access. In one way it drives us forward, but in another it keeps us from appreciating the subtle and the everyday.

You can fight this by trying new, smaller things. Ordering something new at a restaurant where you get the same thing every visit can be eye-opening the same way visiting a new country can be, and both push you out of your comfortable spaces. Diversify the challenges you embrace so you don't just push your boundaries in the same direction. If you've been learning Latin-based languages and you find yourself bored, switch gears to a language with a completely different set of characters. If you've taken up running, instead of just trying to run longer and farther, try challenging yourself to run on different terrain. You still get the challenge, but you broaden your horizons in a different way.

Take it slow, and make stretching your boundaries a habit of its own

The point of stepping out of your comfort zone is to embrace new experiences and to get to that state of optimal anxiety in a controlled, managed way, not to stress yourself out. Take time to reflect on your experiences so you can reap the benefits and apply them to your day to day activities. Then do something else interesting and new. Make it a habit if you can. Try something new every week, or every month.

Similarly, don't limit yourself to big, huge experiences. Maybe meditation pushes you out of your comfort zone just as much as bungee jumping. Try the former if you've already done the latter. The goal isn't to become an adrenaline junkie-you just want to learn to learn what you're really capable of. That's another reason why it's important to return to a comfortable state sometimes and just relax. Just don't forget to bring back as much as you can carry from those inspired, creative, productive, and slightly uncomfortable moments when you do.

This story was originally published on 7/03/13 and has been updated on 9/26/19 with new photos and to reflect more current links and information.

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The Science of Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone (and Why You Should)

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Routines can be stable and comforting, but they can also turn stale and confining over time. All those inspirational messages telling you to break out of your comfort zone aren't just trying to sell you bungee cords. Doing something new and potentially frightening helps stave off burnout and is good for your brain.

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Studied BSc Psychology, which catalysed my interest in people and how they stay effective in different environments.

For example, I found this research (linked above!) interesting about emotions and digital learning:

"Confusion is a critical stage of students’ emotional trajectories during learning and can provide learning opportunities under certain conditions" One of which: "confusion must be sufficient to engage learners in its active resolution" (Arguel et al., 2018).

These are the things that I believe should be taken into account when thinking about how to effectively engage students at home, which will be an integral part of supporting lecturers content.

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Seeking optimal confusion: a review on epistemic emotion management in interactive digital learning environments

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Emotions play a significant part in students' learning experiences within complex educational environments. However, the impact of emotional experiences on effective learning is not straightforward. For example, being confused during learning may be perceived as an adverse event. There is, however, considerable research evidence suggesting that confusion can also be a productive aspect of a student's learning processes.

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I was Waterpolo Captain for a year, where my team and I worked to create the above video as part of our digital promotional strategy.

We exceeded our new member recruitment by 30 this year, showing the effectiveness of our online vision.

This allowed me to become familiar with copyright issues associated with digital media.

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EXETER UNIVERSITY WATER POLO CLUB CAMPAIGN VIDEO 2017/18 - PART II

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Worked in a pharmaceutical company in Zimbabwe.

The volatile economic conditions allowed me to learn in a fast-paced environment with unusual challenges.

I also gained excellent IT and stakeholder management skills, which are integral to the Digital Learning Developer Role.

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Balanced 7 modules a term and effectively managed project deadlines.

One such project involved a behaviour change consultancy report, which is linked above.

In this, I applied psychological concepts to a proposed campaign which involved using services from Jump; a digital platform designed to engage people with sustainable action.

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The skills this role offers will be foundational to my next steps.

I have a place on an MSc Organisational Psychology course, set to start next September.

Gaining practical experience in a Graduate Digital Learning  Developer role would be both an exciting and valuable starting point for my career.

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My LinkedIn
My Triathlon focused instagram