Sometimes, it seems like growing up is all about finding that elusive thing called a comfort zone. That space where you feel secure, un-threatened, confident and — mostly — appreciated. This could be an activity you engage in, a place you go to, a group you hang out with, a genre of book you read…just about anything where you feel a sense of belonging and yes, of course, are comfortable. When you find it, the world suddenly seems to be a better place. Understandably, then, we are reluctant to do anything that might disturb it—or displace us in any way.
The dictionary defines comfort zone as a “place where you feel at ease” but also, “a settled method of working that requires little effort and yields barely acceptable results.” In this zone, your basic ideas about yourself and the world are not challenged, and you can continue to do things in a set way.
The transition to college from school, to university from college, or from education to the workplace usually entails that you move out of this comfort zone. More often than not, you are removed from your circle of old friends and classmates, you enter a new physical and mental space where the expectations have to be figured out and old habits set aside for new modes of working. After such a move, we tend to spend the first few weeks trying to rediscover our comfort zone. We seek companions who most closely resemble our old friends (or ourselves), we apply our old ways of doing things to the new situation, hoping they will be adequate. In fact, the more unsettled we feel in this new space, the more we cling to the familiar, the known.
New learning
No doubt it is very important to find that comfort zone — it is a way of gaining some confidence and emotional and psychological security. But recall that second definition of the term: “a method of working that requires little effort…”. Now that’s something to guard against. Just as it is important to find one’s comfort zone in a new location, it is also important not to get too comfortable in it. Intellectual growth — and indeed other facets of personal growth — comes from seeking and meeting challenges. New problems demand new approaches, and from that comes new learning. And sometimes the learning can come from shifting one’s way of looking at old problems, from engaging in new conversations with strangers.
New spaces also can be an opportunity to change patterns that you have grown tired of, but have somehow become wedded to — they are too closely tied to the identity you’ve built in your old school or college, and your old friends expect you to be that way, to do things that way. Of course, trying new things can take a positive or a negative turn — and that’s a judgment call that you will need to make.
In an academic setting, moving out of your comfort zone can mean a variety of things. It could mean consciously reading material, you have so far pushed aside as too boring or too complex; exposing yourself to ideas that you have felt uncomfortable or disagreed with; tackling projects that you have avoided because they were too much trouble; collaborating with peers whom you’ve avoided because of their politics or culture; learning new tools or rethinking old ones… or simply speaking up in class if you’ve been the silent spectator, or listening to others instead of always being the one to speak up.
When you find yourself in a new space, surrounded by new faces and ideas; when you’re outside your comfort zone; see it as an opportunity to shake up your life and your thinking a little bit. Think of it as an opportunity to try on a new you.
The author teaches at the University of Hyderabad and edits Teacher Plus. usha.bpgll@gmail.com
