Is it really a good thing to get out of your comfort zone? Leigh’s five things will help you decide

I found myself late on a Saturday night, in a crowded bar, listening to jazz, which I was told was good jazz! As I looked around the room, watching how most people were tapping away to the beat, I realised my slightly jittery feeling was because I was out of my comfort zone.

I’m not great at being out late, I only tend to do ‘crowded’ at sport events and I wasn’t entirely sure I like jazz. But that’s OK, I thought, it’s good to be out of your comfort zone.

But is it? Is it really?

I have a successful career, have relatively good work/life balance and get to do lots of interesting things BECAUSE I do things I‘m good at, staying firmly in my comfort zone. Why is being out of your comfort zone considered a good thing?

I’m going to use this month’s 5 things to try and understand why in a world that is constantly changing, we are encouraged to move away from things that give us the tools and abilities to cope with that change. It seems it’s all about learning!

Listen: Rangan Chatterjee: Out of Hours BBC Sounds

It’s a bit long but this woman knows how to work out of her comfort zone!  Having worked in bomb disposal and then moved on to Love Island, Camilla Thurlow knows a bit about comfort zones . She talks to Rangan Chatterjee about what she learnt about herself in what can only be described as a non-comfortable career. It’s evident that being out of your comfort zone can have consequences!

Watch: Stepping out of your comfort zone Dustin Levy (2023)

The Learning Zone features prominently here and Dustin Levy sets out an argument for stepping outside of your comfort zone by growing your comfort zone. There are some things that I don’t agree with – there is nothing wrong with having a small group of close friends. I’m also not convinced he acknowledges our capacity to shift our comfort zones without having to learn new things as we use things in our comfort one to tackle new challenges.  But it is difficult to argue with the underpinning point that learning leads to a bigger comfort zone and by my reckoning that’s a good thing!

Read: When you should not step outside of your comfort zone Molinsky, 2024

There’s a bit of a theme building here about needing to move outside of your comfort zone to learn and grow (I’m not entirely convinced). And although this starts with the premise that stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing, it does suggest that it might not always be the thing to do.  And that makes it worthy of reading!

Sign up to: learning a language, a cooking class, music lessons – anything  that requires a bit of commitment and that will move you into the learning zone that Dustin Levy talks about. Have a look at your bucket list and pick the thing that you are most cautious about!

Do: Think about this. I am still pretty sceptical, which might be time of career/age related, but the things in my comfort zone (friends, work techniques, wellbeing) allow me to respond in different ways to new and ongoing change, which I learn from. I rarely enter the panic zone because my comfort zone provides me what I need. Why would I step out of it?

Leigh Robinson is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Education) at Roehampton University and a Women-Space Associate.