Getting Outside Your “Comfort Zone” – the Right Way 

“Life begins outside your comfort zone!” 

“Everything you want is just outside of your comfort zone!” 

You’ve probably heard some variation of “comfort zone” in so many contexts. From fitness to marketing, dating to education, social media channels to hobbies, “going outside your comfort zone” is seen as an unalloyed good. 

The “comfort zone” is bad and limiting, a trap. It keeps you from getting what you want, with the implication that it takes “strength” to get outside of the comfort zone. To stay inside is weakness, a failure. 

Doing new things, trying new activities, can be great. That’s true for life as well as online marketing. 

However, you want to do it in the best way. I thought about that today when I read a couple articles for our full-service digital marketing and web design agency in Los Angeles. 

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone(s) 

The best explanation of comfort zones I’ve read comes from this article. 

“(Professor) Molinsky says that there are three ‘zones’ when it comes to comfort. The first is your comfort zone, where you’re in a familiar situation and are experiencing very little anxiety. A ‘stretch’ zone is when you’re experiencing some level of anxiety, but at a point where you can turn it into motivation and productivity fuel.” 

It’s the next part that really stood out to me: 

“When the threshold overtakes your capacity to handle it,’ (Professor) Molinsky says, “that would be your Panic Zone.” 

That can be applicable to any situation. 

Using fitness as an example, maybe your “comfort zone” is to not work out, or to do a few stretches at home. Then, your “stretch zone” might be going to the gym two to three times a week. Running a marathon, rock climbing, working out six days a week, those could be in your “panic zone.” They’re too far from where your “comfort zone” is right now to be a viable option. 

The same holds true for your business, for your marketing, branding, and more. 

To use a hypothetical example, maybe you’ve been meaning to expand your company’s social media reach. Perhaps you have a Twitter account but you don’t do much with it. A great way to hit your “stretch zone” could be to post once a day, or to get a Facebook account and post a few times a week to that, too. 

What might be in your “panic zone” would be to get a TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube page, posting daily to each as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Maybe that’s all stuff you can work up to, but for now, that might burn you out (in multiple ways). 

A Great Way to Access Your “Stretch Zone” 

This article I saw today from “the daily news for Marine Industry Professionals” could fit for just about any business. 

Great advice: “allocated 80 percent of your budget and your efforts to the marketing initiatives that have been historically effective and are currently working well.” 

Consequently, that 20% can be trying new things, experimenting, and more. That 20%, for lack of a better phrase, could be “The Stretch Zone Fund.” That’s where you can go a step or two outside of your comfort zone, but maybe not that much further, not yet. 

That way, you can get outside of your comfort zone step by step, ultimately getting to where you want to go. 

For more help with this or anything else that our full-service digital marketing and web design agency in Los Angeles can help with, call us at (888) 477-9540.