“The comfort zone is a psychological state in which one feels familiar, safe, at ease, and secure.” ― Roy T. Bennett

Comfort zone is where you feel safe and secure, right? Why would you ever want to get out of it? You should be happy to be in a stable environment, that seems so obvious.
Unfortunately, it is not the truth. More you stay in your comfort zone less happy you will become over time.

If it is making us less happy then why do we tend to be in the comfort zone? That is because of the human tendency to save resources. In prehistoric time, energy was quite limited so our bodies adapted mechanisms to use it efficiently. By default, we tend to do things which has less mental and physical resistance. 

In today’s world, survival is not an issue for most of the population. We can afford to spend our energy in other areas apart from survival. While doing so our primitive brain offers resistance. 

I was too, trapped in the comfort zone in the past and recently got into it again. But after experimenting and gaining knowledge on how to get out of it for good, I was finally able to defeat it. I will share my knowledge and the resources I used, so you do not have to spend time researching. After reading this article you will be ready to get out of your comfort zone.

First, I will share how much damage can it do, if left unchecked. Then finally go through highly effective steps to come out of it.


How the comfort zone destroys you in 3 unnoticeable steps

1. Less Growth

Comfort zone prevents growth. As growing is always uncomfortable.

Making progress is the main source of happiness. 

Hence levels of happiness decrease too.

2. Avoiding New Experiences and Opportunity

After stagnation, one might notice being uncomfortable from new things. As new things are risky. He will stop exposing himself to new ideas too. 

Luck is a major factor when it comes to success, not trying new things will lower the luck in general.
Comfort zone starts to shrink too. Once the things which were easy to do now give pain even if you think about it. 

3. Giving up on dreams

The final blow that comfort zone will give will make us give up on even trying. 

As growth and exposer of new opportunities are not taking place, one will see no way to move forward and settle down for less. 

One will stop dreaming big and even stop anyone around him who is doing so.

But it is never too late to start and change your life! 



“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.” ― Benedict Cumberbatch

Defeating comfort zone monster


 First thing you must learn before you start your improvement journey is to get comfortable being uncomfortable. 

I will be discussing the method I used to get started and 2 formal methods I learnt along the way.

Cold Showers

It is the easiest way to start stepping out of the comfort zone.
Basically, you replace your hot/warm morning shower with a cold shower. You must be thinking this will give me cold for sure, but that is not the case. Cold showers have shown to increase immunity, increase alertness and reduce stress.
Point of taking a cold shower in this context is to step out of the comfort zone every single day. This accustoms you to the feeling of being uncomfortable, expending your comfort zone daily.

Procrastination List

  1. You will need to make a list of things that you have been procrastinating since the last week. It could be as small as cleaning your desk to as big as starting a new project.
  2. Now pick the smallest task and start doing it. Seriously, do one right now and then come back!
  3. Repeat this process until the list is empty.
On completion of the list, you would be comfortable with doing those things again. As doing it once offers less resistance the second time.

Tim Ferriss’ Challenges

Tim Ferriss is the author of the famous book “4-hour workweek”. Recently while I was going through his book, I came across comfort challenges.

Essentially, these challenges are things which will make you uncomfortable and overtime it will expend the comfort zone. Few of them are mentioned on his site. I highly recommend reading "4-hour workweek" if starting to read is in your procrastination list.
I would suggest starting with cold showers and procrastination list. After Completing your list start taking Tim Ferriss’ comfort challenges every week.

Then make sure that you are constantly trying to make the comfort zone bigger by identifying what makes you uncomfortable and getting used to it. That’s all you need to eliminate the comfort zone as a problem in your life! Comment below your thoughts and do share this article with your friends and family! Thank you for reading!