An important aspect of personal development is being able to learn and grow. Without that capacity, no personal development is possible.

No matter how strong your personal vision, how many personal goals you set, and how carefully you plan your personal development, you will not progress without being prepared and willing to learn. However, developing that capacity to learn and grow can in itself be a challenge.

This page explains more about why this may be the case. It does so by discussing the concept of 'comfort zones', where we feel safe. It uses several models to explain how we can move beyond our comfort zones, and over time expand them to enable growth and development.

What is the Comfort Zone?

To understand more about personal growth, it is essential to understand what we mean by our 'comfort zone' - and why sometimes we need to step outside it.

Our 'comfort zone' is quite literally just that: the psychological state in which we feel safe and comfortable (see box).

Being inside your comfort zone is very comfortable, as you would expect. You are not challenged, you feel at ease and in control, and you have what you need. It is, in fact, a pretty pleasant place to be.

However, when you are inside your comfort zone, you are unlikely to be learning anything new. If you are not being challenged by new ideas or new experiences, how can you expand and develop?

Being able to learn requires you to take risks. You will need to try new things that you have never done before, and be open to new experiences. This means that learning requires you to step outside of your 'comfort zone', and into what often feels like a more dangerous place.

Risk, Arousal and Performance

There is another aspect of stepping outside your comfort zone, and that is performance. The Yerkes-Dodson law (see box) states that we perform better when under some stress - but not too much.

The Yerkes-Dodson law has been linked to comfort zones. The concept is that when we are in our comfort zones, we can often become bored or apathetic. We need to step outside of our comfort zones, and experience a bit of risk in order to perform better.

However, if we go too far beyond our comfort zone, we may move past the optimal level of arousal, and into a state of fear and even panic. In this state, learning is no longer possible, because our minds are too taken up with controlling the reactions of the limbic system to be open to learning. Some authors have called the optimal zone the 'Goldilocks' zone: not too much or too little, but just right.

This concept was developed into a model now known as the Comfort-Stretch-Panic model by Dawna Markova and M. J. Ryan.

This model states that there are three zones in which we can operate, which Ryan and Markova described as 'zones of existence'. They are:

• The Comfort Zone, where everything is familiar and safe, but there is limited opportunity for growth.

• The Stretch Zone, beyond the comfort zone, where things start to get a little more uncomfortable. In the stretch zone, we will encounter challenges but will be able to stretch to manage them. This is the optimal zone for learning and growth, and is often also called the learning zone.

• The Panic Zone, where the challenge is just too much, and we become overwhelmed. At that point, very little learning is possible because you are simply trying to manage your physical and emotional reaction to the situation.

With this model in mind, teachers and coaches have focused on encouraging learners to step outside their comfort zones, but without going too far. They have therefore tried to help people to reach 'stretch' without getting as far as 'panic'.

The problem is that the boundaries between the zones are both highly personal and invisible. What is perfectly normal for one person may be hugely fear-inducing for others with different experiences. It is therefore important for teachers, supervisors, and coaches only to encourage people to take steps beyond their comfort zone and never force it. It also seems helpful to focus on 'small steps', and ensure that if someone reaches too far, they are enabled to take a step back.

What happens, though, when fear appears to be induced from the moment of stepping outside the comfort zone, with no move through any kind of stretch zone?

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An Extended Model: Introducing the Fear Zone

In the last few years, an extended version of the Comfort-Stretch-Panic model has appeared that seems to provide an answer to this question.

This model introduces a 'fear zone' immediately outside the comfort zone, and before the stretch or learning zone. It also adds a new 'growth zone', which can be reached once your comfort zone has expanded to the old 'stretch zone'.

The model suggests that we may be frightened to move outside our comfort zone because of self-doubt, lack of self-confidence, and fear of others' opinions. In other words, we may feel fear - and perhaps that is being confused with the 'panic zone', making people want to step back into the safety of their comfort zone.

It is, however, important to be clear that this 'fear zone' is not the same as the panic zone.

• There is a genuine physiological basis for the panic zone, where our systems are unable to cope, and we become overwhelmed by managing our own emotional reactions to the situation.

• In the fear zone, the problem is largely psychological: it is about our own doubts and fears about whether we will be able to cope.

However, adding this zone to the model helps to explain why people may find it difficult to make that first step towards learning, and also means that it may be possible to address this issue.

Implications for Learning

The real question is how learners, teachers and coaches can use these models to enable learning.

Some ideas that may be useful are:

• Take small steps

  Expand your comfort zone in small doses. You really don't want to take on more than you can manage at a time. Stretch is good, panic is not. Think about it like this: if all you've ever done is a walk in the park, you won't be able to climb Everest - or even Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) - tomorrow. You'll need to try some hillwalking first, and probably do some first aid and mountain training to expand your skills, before you can move onto bigger hills and mountains.

• The learner is in the lead - but may need encouragement

  It will never work well to force someone outside their comfort zone. Learners must want to take that first step, but many of us need encouragement to do so. This is a fine balance to find for any coach or teacher, but it is possible.

• Distinguish self-doubt from paralysis

  One of the most useful things that anyone can do - learner or coach - is to distinguish between the self-doubt that is characteristic of the fear zone, and the paralysis that is the nature of the panic zone. Any physical signs of fear, such as shivering or shaking, tears, or 'butterflies', are more likely to be closer to the panic zone. However, a feeling of 'I don't really want...' is more likely to be the fear zone.

• Try to name the fear that is holding you back

  One way to distinguish fear from panic is to try to identify the fear that is holding you back. If you can do so fairly clearly and rationally, then you are in the fear zone. The bonus here is that once identified, you can start to find solutions that will solve that fear. Worried you won't be able to cope? Nobody knows until they try. Concerned about what other people will think? Don't worry about other people.

• It's OK to step backwards too

  Moving through the process of expanding your comfort zone may not be a linear process. Sometimes people need to take a step or two back again - and even right back into their comfort zones - in order to progress further. The key is to keep asking how you can improve (and there is more about the importance of this question in our page on The Importance of Mindset).

• See stress as a positive

  Physiologically, anxiety and excitement are all the same. They both induce the same 'stress responses' in the body. In other words, whether we label a feeling as anxiety or excitement is really a matter of perception, because our bodies don't distinguish between them. If you see the feeling as positive, then that is how you will experience it. What's more, a small amount of stress can be a positive: as Yerkes and Dodson found, it can improve performance up to a certain point.

• Try expanding your comfort zone in different ways

  Breaking your routine, and dropping the familiar, may be easier in some areas than others. However, it also becomes easier once you have done it once. If you are finding that expanding your comfort zone in one area is very challenging, try focusing on a different area instead. For example, if you are struggling to step outside what you know at work, try something new at home, or a different way of getting to work instead.

There are more ideas about how you might break up your routine in our page on Curiosity. You may also find it useful to read our page on Adaptability for more about how to become more flexible in your thinking - a useful attribute when expanding your comfort zone.

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And Finally...

Learning and developing is not always easy.

It requires being uncomfortable from time to time, and also taking risks. However, stepping outside your comfort zone, and starting to learn, will bring rewards that far outweigh the discomfort. If you are struggling to make that first step, ask yourself what's stopping you - and then aim to move beyond those fears.

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