Escape Comfort Zone – Be Uncomfortable & Succeed

Expanding Your Comfort Zone

A Comfort Zone is defined as the psychological state of being in control of the environment, with a low level of anxiety and stress. Staying in your comfort zone is a deterrent to growth. This is my journey of reaching out of my comfort zone, each time expanding it further.

My Comfort Zone Story

In my IT career, there have been three instances where I pushed myself outside my comfort zone, it was either due to lack of growth, or drastic change in circumstances, and not once have I regretted it.

The first time was in my first organization where my growth had stagnated, and the only opportunity I thought of as an out was moving to the USA. My organization was more than happy to proceed with the process, but unfortunately, my visa was denied.

I had two options, continue at the same pay scale in the same organization, or switch to a different organization and look for growth outside. I opted for expanding my comfort zone. I attended multiple interviews and cracked an interview with my current organization’s competitor. This was going to be my first switch, I was nervous. The thing is I was very comfortable in my current work, I had already proved to be a dependable employee and a lead. I knew the system I was working on inside out. The likelihood of ever faltering or making a mistake was minimal, but then it also meant a stagnant career path.

So I took the step and switched to a new place, out to prove myself again.

Have you ever skydiver?

If you have, you would know that the fear is at its peak just before the jump, once you jump, the experience is among the best experiences you can ever have. There is a risk to life but once you have jumped off the plane I think it does not drive you anymore, I think this has got to do with the fact that now nothing can be done, you can either enjoy the experience or just close your eyes till you land. The former option pushes you to expand your experience, and the latter changes nothing, wasting a perfect opportunity.

When I joined the new organisation, I had two options stay scared about failing, or fail and learn. Failure is the best lesson because you never forget the lesson that failure teaches you. I chose to try and fail, if at all, I spoke up, suggested changes, and tried to work the same way I did in my prior organization, and luckily it paid off, within a year I again got an opportunity to travel to the US again, and this time I got through.

Being Comfortable Again:

My life in the US was very comfortable in the first 2 years, this was also when I got married. Then came the second instance when I was pushed out of my comfort zone when Neha(my wife) started her education in the US at one of the top universities.

For those who do not know education in the US is very expensive. But investing in yourself is the best investment you can make, so we decided to go ahead. I had decent savings to sustain ourselves initially, but gradually we got to a point where the course fee was catching up on our household income.

In this case, staying in my comfort zone was not an option, so I started looking again and got a chance to go back to my first organization’s branch in the USA. This push out of my comfort zone was not as drastic as before, since I knew the place I was going to, and I moved to NYC.

I had some of the best days of my life when I was working at Wall Street, there is something magical about the place. The move also sorted all my financial vows. This unfortunately did not last for long either.

In a couple of years, my US visa extension was denied, and I had to move back to India. This could have been the most drastic change I had to experience, but by then I had gotten slightly used to expanding my comfort zone. I had already made some backup plans, and in this case, it was a move to Australia, this was potentially the biggest risk I had ever taken.

Once my Australian PR was approved I quit the organization, again, and decided to move to a new country, without a job. This was my skydive moment yet again, but luckily my prior experiences of pushing my comfort zone had made me more resilient and resourceful.

I gave it everything and secured a job in a new country within a month. This gave me a lot of confidence in my capabilities.

My Learnings

In the three instances shared before, where in one case I was forced to come out of my comfort zone and in two I chose to expand it, I learned a very important lesson, the only deterrent to your growth is your comfort zone.

You have a choice, live the same life day in and day out, do the same thing day in and day out, stay risk-averse, and live a mediocre but stress-free life. Another option is to push yourself, take risks, and make choices that others consider crazy.

Which one you opt for is completely up to you, but I am sure one of the two would lead to far fewer regrets down the line.

Today I am on a similar journey yet again, I am in my comfort zone, my work life is great, I am financially in a good state, my stress is low, and with a toddler in the house, it’s not an ideal time to take risks. But still, I have decided to reach outside of my comfort zone again and try new things.

This blog, my newsletter etc are part of these steps.

At 38 my risk appetite is very low, and I can no longer do anything drastic. So I am taking small steps to grow something that will act as a base for my plans for comfort zone expansion.

I have no idea where this will take me, but I have learned one thing in the past 15 years, if you want to grow and do not want to have regrets, expand your horizon, get out of your comfort zone, and reach out to become a better version of yourself, even if you fail you would still come out stronger than before.