Education begins at home and continues into school, college and university, but our education certainly doesn’t end there. Throughout our lives we will want to achieve more and this means we have to grow as an individual. We may need to learn new skills, develop our knowledge, and transform who we are in the process. For some this will be a challenge they relish, and for others it may become a challenge they start to avoid.

Challenging old beliefs can feel uncomfortable

When we are younger it is easier to embrace change and new learning because we haven’t fixed all our ideas yet. As we get older, we may need to challenge old beliefs in order to learn new things, and this can feel uncomfortable.

We are natural creators who need to keep achieving and growing so we feel a sense of purpose. Constant growth requires a commitment to life-long learning and change, yet some people fear change almost on a cellular level. They don’t like the discomfort that comes from doing something new; you may have heard them say “but I’ve always done it that way”. What they really need is to expand their ‘comfort zone’.

So what is our ‘comfort zone’?

Our ‘comfort zone’ is our current experience; it is the life that we are living in this present moment. Whether we are in full-time education or working, our life is made up of certain experiences that we have become comfortable with. It doesn’t mean that all these experiences are good for us – it just means they are now part of the ‘comfort zone’ we have created for ourselves. If we want something different we are going to have to expand our ‘comfort zone’. We may have to learn new skills, develop our knowledge and even change the way we think.

Whenever we have to learn something new we will have a temporary dip in our performance levels. This is because we are processing the new learning and it hasn’t as yet become a habit. If you have ever played a sport you will know that there comes a point where you may have to change your technique in order to improve your game.

Now an athlete will accept the temporary drop in performance and the discomfort they feel, but they won’t give up practising the new technique because they know that in the long term it will improve their game. Those people who avoid feeling this temporary discomfort will never learn and improve their ‘game’, and may avoid change and learning altogether.

Get comfortable with temporary discomfort

Whether we are learning a new technique, changing a thought, developing our skills or broadening our knowledge, we just need to get comfortable with the temporary discomfort we will naturally feel as we step outside our ‘comfort zone’. We need to literally let the comfort catch us up, and not try to ‘fix’ the feeling or we may return to our ‘old’ way of doing things.

In order to grow we must expand our ‘comfort zone’.