The Zones

Let’s discuss “The Zones”.  These are the Comfort Zone, the Fear Zone, the Learning Zone and the Growth Zone.

Those four zones can have a massive impact on our lives, depending on what we are doing and which zone we are in regarding that task or aspect of our life. And it can affect any aspect of our life, whether it's relationships, our finances, our business, our work, our health, our mental health and well wellbeing and our personal growth. It is important to know and understand which zone we are in for each of those aspects.

In some areas, we might be going through a massive growth zone, or we are in the learning zone. And other times we may be stuck in the comfort zone. For me, my personal growth and development were stuck in my comfort zone for a long time. Being stuck in the Comfort Zone of Personal Growth held me back in most other aspects of my life, including business, finances and relationships.

Being in the comfort zone is where we feel comfortable, where we feel safe, where we feel like we've got control. And control had a lot to do with that for me. I felt I had to control my life, or at least what I let people see of my life.

For example, with work, or business, and let's just say you're at work. You've got a job that pays you well. You don’t have to push yourself too much, you're just happy where you are. You don’t try to get promotions or opportunities to go to another level. You just stay in that comfort zone.

Why is that? If you consciously choose to be there, that's perfectly fine.

But are there other reasons?

Do you fear that you might fail? Are you worried about other people might react in a negative way? Are you concerned about other people’s opinions?  If that’s the case, then you may find fear is holding you back and keeping you in your comfort zone.

Then there’s that underlying feeling of lack of confidence, “I’m not good enough” type of thing.

 As a result of that type of mindset, we often find excuses for ourselves.

“The times not right.”

“I'm not good enough.”

“I'm not right for that job.”

“That job is not right for me.”

We know how to find excuses to wiggle our way out of moving forward and we stay in our comfort zone. The problem with staying in the comfort zone, we don't get to grow.

There's a quote “Nothing ever great happens in your comfort zone” (Carla Coulson).

If we want to grow, we have to push ourselves harder. We can't get fit and stay that way by going for a little walk every once in a while. We have to push ourselves physically. That means we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and into those other zones.

So, what holds us back? Fear – and getting into the fear zone. If we don't get past that fear zone, that fear of failure, that fear of rejection, that fear of not having control – all those types of things will just push us straight back into the comfort zone.

But what if we push through that fear zone? That's when we get to the Learning Zone. When we're in that zone, that's when we get to learn new skills, where we can deal with challenges in a better way, we build up our resilience, and we learn how to adapt and change.

By learning, we are growing, and that increases the size of our comfort zone.

If we spend enough time in that learning zone, what happens is we get to move into our growth zone.

And the growth zone is where the magic happens. We can set new goals. Follow our long term dreams and aspirations. Along the way, we often find our purpose and realize what our true dreams and aspirations really are. (Mine have changed. In fact, I really didn’t know what they were until a few years ago. Now, I want to leave a legacy, help as many people as I can to help them move forward from their emotional struggles, empower them to grow and provide the tools and skills to be the best version of themselves and allow them to pass them onto the next generation.)

I honestly believe that when we get into this space, the growth zone, and we're there long enough, we get to find who we truly are.

For me, I was stuck in my comfort zone for a long, long time. My childhood trauma, the fear of facing that was so great it kept me in my comfort zone for 44 years. 44 years, all because I was afraid of the pain. I always found an excuse not to leave that comfort zone. “I’m Okay”, “I'll be fine”, “I don't need to do that”.

My fear was too great for me to face. I made that fear to be far greater than it actually was. Because I didn't understand what the rewards were, and the rewards were amazing.

Once I dealt with my fear and trauma, the emotional freedom was liberating. I then got to learn new skills, learn who I was, how to deal with mental health issues and my challenges along the way. I've now got resilience. I learned how to adapt and change and grow.

I now pass those skills on to other people. That has allowed me to get to that growth zone where I found my purpose.

If you're stuck in that comfort zone, then I beg you, please, don't stay there. Understand you have to punch through that fear zone. Stop making excuses. You've got the courage inside, you just have to find it.  It's there. We all have it.

Then get into that learning zone and just push yourself a little bit each day. Sooner or later, you'll find that you’re in the growth zone. You’ll get that job or the relationship you always wanted. Your mental health and well and finances may improve.

We all have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone so we can be the person we want to be, and be able to live the life that we want and that we deserve.

I hope that helps a little bit. Peace, love and healing

Brett