The Powerful Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Comfort and growth are like oil and water: They don’t go together. You’ve probably heard some iteration of this before. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously believed that comfort crushes creativity and promotes conformity. Even modern-day self-help entrepreneur Tony Robbins comments on this paradox of life, writing, "too much certainty, and we won’t fulfill our need for growth and new experiences. But too much uncertainty can lead to anxiety and lack of productivity."

Comfort generally refers to a state where our needs are met, so we are at ease. We are wired to seek comfort and certainty because it means safety and security. Retreating to our comfort zones can recharge our batteries.

However, a lack of risk-taking results in a lack of growth. Eventually, progress plateaus. Pushing the envelope and trying new things challenges our beliefs, changes our mindset, and helps us reach our full potential (not to mention that exposing yourself to new things is one of the best ways to keep your brain sharp). But doing so is often easier said than done.

Why (Some) Discomfort Is Actually Good for Us

One reason it’s important to embrace some uncertainty and discomfort is that the true magic of life typically happens outside of our comfort zones. In 1907, psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson studied the relationship between stress and performance. Now called Yerkes-Dodson Law, this theory helps us understand how a certain amount of anxiety and tiny bit of stress actually help us.

Imagine a bell-shaped curve on a graph. On the Y-axis or vertical line on the left, you have performance (with the lowest level/worst performance at the bottom). The X-axis or horizontal line represents stress levels (the lowest amount of stress on the left and highest amount of stress on the right). Initially, low anxiety or pressure equals poor performance. This is how you feel when you’re bored or disengaged—you’re on autopilot. 

As arousal increases, so does performance, eventually hitting the optimal level of anxiety, or as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi later dubbed it, "flow," a state of peak self-regulation where you’re totally in the zone and focused solely on the task in front of you. When we enter the flow state, we experience intense concentration, spontaneous waves of creativity, and immense joy. If you’ve ever seen a musician play live, they often look lost in the music. At this peak, there are just enough stress hormones—adrenaline, cortisol—to wake us up and fully engage us.

But when stress continues to increase, it tips past the point of being helpful, and we become overwhelmed, frantic, or scatterbrained—and performance drops. It becomes hard to focus or retain information. In short, a healthy amount of stress and stimulation rises us to the occasion, but too much is counterproductive to innovation and seriously affects our mental and physical health. 

This sweet spot of stress  applies to many aspects of our lives—in jobs, sports, social settings, creative pursuits, and even how we approach learning.

Why We Like to Stay Within Our Comfort Zone

If we know it’s good for us to feel some level of discomfort in order to grow and improve, why is it so hard for many people to step outside of their comfort zone? Pninit Russo-Netzer, PhD, a researcher and Founder of the Academic Training Program for Logotherapy at Tel-Aviv University in Israel, explains that evolutionarily, people are strongly motivated to feel competent and in control, and they prefer clarity and predictability over ambiguity and uncertainty. Trying things outside our comfort zone can feel threatening, especially if those things challenge our need to feel competent or in control.

This could explain why taking a small step outside of our comfort zone, such as trying food we’ve never had before, seems more doable than moving to a new country where we don’t speak the language or know anyone. Both are unpredictable, but not liking a new food likely won’t challenge our competence or feel all that threatening. 

"Extensive research suggests that when individuals are faced with decisions, they tend to maintain the status quo," Russo-Netzer explains. "Maintaining the default requires less mental effort and psychological threat than change." In other words, the potential costs of change feel more significant than their potential benefits. 

The Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Russo-Netzer’s research on this topic has found that for people who were relatively less happy, engaging in activities outside their comfort zone boosted their life satisfaction. Through her studies, here are some benefits she’s observed when people step outside their comfort zones.

1. Self-Integrity and Self-Efficacy
   Self-integrity refers to peoples’ view of themselves as morally and adaptively adequate. Having self-integrity is empowering. Overcoming a challenge outside of one’s comfort zone, rather than avoiding it, can strengthen self-integrity as people attain greater competence and confidence in navigating uncertainty and unpredictability. Although going outside one’s comfort zone may be stressful, it is unlikely to be as aversive as people imagine it will be. Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one has the skills necessary to do a task. By pushing beyond our limits, we realize we are capable of more and can thrive in challenging circumstances.
2. Growth Mindset
   Someone with a growth mindset believes they can expand their abilities through effort and practice. The term was coined by psychologist Carol Dweck, who differentiated between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe they were dealt particular cards in life, and that is that. There is a ceiling to what they can achieve, so trying new things is terrifying and pointless. People with a growth mindset believe they can change and grow and expand. This mindset gives us room to try new things.
3. Reduced Regret
   Research suggests that people tend to regret the actions they did not take rather than the actions they did, and they tend to find excuses to miss many of the seemingly risky opportunities in their lives for growth.
4. Resilience and Antifragility
   The practice of stepping outside one's comfort zone prepares them to deal with unpredictable life stressors. The term "antifragility" was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an essayist and mathematical statistician, and refers to the ability to gain strength from adversity. "Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness," he’s quoted as saying. "The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better."
5. Self-Actualization
   In short, this means achieving one’s full potential. People who go outside of their comfort zone may discover new opportunities in their environment and meet new people to help them grow into the best versions of themselves.

How to Get Out of—and Expand—Your Comfort Zone

Don’t worry; stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t have to involve massive changes that uproot your life. Even small acts can lead to increased life satisfaction, Russo-Netzer confirms. But deviating from what’s familiar requires a bit of reflection and self-awareness.

The psychologist Lev Vygotsky coined the term "zone of proximal development," suggesting that every person has their own unique range of growth potential in various areas of their life. (What you might fight scary and uncomfortable is nothing at all to someone else—and vice versa.)

A first step to becoming more aware of your unique range of comfort and learning zones would be to write down all the things you would like to try that are different from what you usually do. It could be trying a new workout class or finally learning to play the guitar. Then, break them down into concrete actions, schedule a specific time for one activity from the list, and document your experience. 

To expand your comfort zone gradually, pick challenges you are genuinely interested in. And remember, this experience should be an opportunity for you to learn something new about yourself. Create space for curiosity and engagement rather than judgment.

"We can train our growth muscle to expand our comfort zone through regular exposure to new experiences in familiar places," Russo-Netzer says. "What does it mean for you to surprise yourself? When was the last time you did something for the first time? It may mean trying out a new hobby, experimenting with a new taste, smiling or complimenting a stranger on the street, or even behaving like a tourist in your neighborhood."