Seeking comfort is a normal, natural behavior. But sometimes, staying in your comfort zone isn’t helpful or productive. In fact, refusing to budge from your comfort zone as a small business owner can present many hazards.
Seven perils of staying in your comfort zone: Introduction
Comfort zones aren’t a bad thing. They’re totally normal, and even helpful. For example, it’s good for the major functions of your profession to be within your comfort zone. Comfort zones can also be helpful to rest in after trying something new or having a new experience.
However, if you’re always in your comfort zone, you’re missing out on the learning and growth that come from trying new or different things. This is true both personally and professionally. Stay in that comfort zone for too long, and you’ll start to experience stagnation. Stagnation, in turn, often becomes slow failure.
If you tend to linger in your comfort zone, I get it. I did, too, for a long time. However, I also realize that in the past, I denied myself the learning and growth that come from getting outside of the cozy comfort zone. I recognize so many times where I held myself back personally and professionally because I refused to budge out of my comfort zone.
I don’t want that for you. So today, I’m sharing seven perils of staying in your comfort zone.
Stunts progress toward goals
First, staying in your comfort zone stunts progress toward goals. Most goals are goals because you’ve never done them before. And if you’ve never done it, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to step outside of your comfort zone to make it happen.
Continuing to hang out in your comfort zone prevents you from making progress on your goals by discouraging you from taking risks or trying things that feel uncertain to you.
Automatically filters out new ideas or strategies that aren’t in your comfort zone
Second, staying in your comfort zone automatically filters out many new ideas and strategies, simply because they feel uncomfortable to you.
I’m not saying you should always try everything that’s outside of your comfort zone. It’s important to be strategic in business (and in life). However, if you’re filtering out every potentially-uncomfortable option or idea, you’re probably going to be left with all the stuff you’ve tried before.
Along these lines, it’s important to remember that there is a difference between your comfort zone and your morals and values. If an idea feels outside of your comfort zone, it may be because you’ve never tried it, it feels new, or you’re not certain it will work. If an idea doesn’t align with your morals and values, though, that’s a different story (and not what I’m talking about here).
Encourages self-deception around what you’re capable of
Third, staying in your comfort zone can cause you to deceive yourself about your own limitations and what’s possible for you.
This might be hard for some people to hear, but staying in your comfort zone denies your potential.
Think about it. What are you telling yourself if you’re staying within your comfort zone all the time? Things like:
- You aren’t capable of more
- You can’t handle failure
- Your growth and success aren’t worth some discomfort
- You don’t trust yourself enough to handle whatever comes up as a result of trying something or taking a risk
How would it feel to hear those things from someone else? Probably pretty terrible! But you send yourself those same messages when you refuse to leave your comfort zone. Bottom line, staying in your comfort zone amounts to willfully holding yourself back.
Makes growth zone feel scary
The more you relish in the comfort of your comfort zone, the scarier growth often feels.
Think about it: If you consistently talk yourself into sticking to your comfort zone, you’re automatically talking yourself out of growth and experimentation.
“I feel so safe here, because it feels so scary out there!”
As I’ve said before, there are times when it’s fine to stick within your comfort zone. However, convincing yourself to always “stay in your lane” also convinces you that exploration, trial, failure, and growth are more than you can handle. If the growth zone feels scary, you’re much less likely to venture there.
Stops you from developing new skills
If you need to develop new skills or sharpen those you already have, staying in your comfort zone is a recipe for disaster.
I see this a lot with clients who are just starting to reach out to potential clients or referral partners. Some of them are really uncomfortable with making contact and building relationships that will lead to them inviting someone to hire them or send them referrals.
They WANT to develop this new skill. They’re uncomfortable trying it because they think it will be awkward, uncomfortable, and they won’t do a good job at first. (…All of which is totally possible.) As a result, they don’t do it. Fear of being new at the skill prevents them from developing it at all.
Shuts down creativity and innovation
Staying in your comfort zone also hinders your creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. If you’re searching for ideas and solutions, but you’re limiting yourself to those that fall within the box of your comfort zone, you miss out on other possibilities.
Refusing to entertain ideas or solutions that aren’t within your comfort zone limits your capacity for resourcefulness. It can also leave you with a bunch of ideas that you’ve already tried. Focusing on ideas from your past (within your comfort zone) usually isn’t the best way to solve problems and grow into the future.
Harms your self-confidence as a small business owner or solopreneur
The sixth way that staying in your comfort zone can be perilous? It can seriously harm your self-confidence as a small business owner or solopreneur.
When you form an attachment to your comfort zone, you send yourself a message that you don’t have what it takes to do so many things that are integral to running and growing your business. In essence, you’re telling yourself that you can’t handle things like:
- Taking risks
- Trying new things
- Being “new” at a skill
- Failure
- New rejection
If staying in your comfort zone causes you to opt out of the process, you’re also opting out of the results you want to create. If you refuse to venture out, you’re telling yourself that you’re not capable of achieving what you want to achieve. That’s something no one wants to hear – especially from themselves.
Seven perils of staying in your comfort zone: Conclusion
Comfort zones are normal and healthy. However, lingering in them for too long can be dangerous for small business owners and solopreneurs. Today, I covered seven perils of staying in your comfort zone. Here’s a quick recap:
- Stunts progress toward goals
- Filters out new ideas or strategies that aren’t in your comfort zone
- Encourages self-deception around what you’re capable of
- Makes growth zone feel scary
- Stops you from developing new skills
- Shuts down creativity and innovation
- Harms self-confidence as a small business owner or solopreneur
If you know you’re stuck in your comfort zone, know that it doesn’t have to be that way. I used to refuse to budge from my comfort zone, but I was able to overcome it. That shift has made a huge difference in both my business and my life. If you’d like some help with navigating outside of your comfort zone, schedule a free call with me. Let’s talk about what’s happening for you, and how you can start shifting in the direction you want.