Comfort zones. They usually get a lot of bad press. We’re regularly told that they’re something we need to “break out of” or “smash” in order to progress and grow as a human being. I’ve lost count of the number of meme diagrams I’ve come across depicting this. You know the ones, with the “where the magic happens” mentality.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found there’s something a little conflicting about the language used here. “Comfort” versus “break out.”
Why would I want to break something I find a comfort to me?
The Psychology Behind ‘Comfort Zones’
It’s worth exploring the origin of the terminology and why it came about. The term “comfort zone” was originally coined by Alasdair White, a Business Management Theorist, in 2009. Popular definitions of what a comfort zone is go something like this:
A comfort zone is a psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person, and they are at ease, and in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of anxiety and stress. In this zone, a steady level of performance is possible.
The definition, of course, doesn’t end there. White went on to work closely with John Fairhurst to formulate their White-Fairhurst Performance Hypothesis which states:
“All performance will initially trend towards a steady state, particularly after a period of performance uplift, and that steady state will then develop a downward curve leading to a significant performance decline.”
From their initial observations, White and Fairhurst went on to write the “From Comfort Zone to Performance Management’”paper, which still stands relatively unchallenged to this day. What they’re basically saying is that the “steady state” bit of the performance is our comfort zone. It’s where we achieve a steady stream of output. Their work came about as a leadership and business performance piece, not a personal growth piece. They were seeking how to ensure that management performed at a consistent and steady rate of output.
The defining words in the definition for me are “they are at ease” and “low levels of anxiety.” A comfort zone, contrary to all the memes and what we’re told by the plethora of well-meaning social media life coaches, actually sounds like a pretty good place. Often inferred as a place of stagnation, the origin of the term seems to hold it in much higher esteem: it is a place of consistency.
So why do we continually hold breaking out of our comfort zone in high regard, and beat ourselves up for not succeeding in doing so?
Continue reading
I think I’ve probably broken Copyright Law by bringing you this much of Elaine’s post but I thought you, my reader, needed to join me in realising that “comfort zone” does not mean “comfortable”.
No comments:
Post a Comment