The Comfort Zone

About 10 years ago, I started a job as a trainer for a Telemarketing agency. In one of my first classes the head trainer told a very motivating story that I would like to share with you.

He began by drawing a diagram of a stick man standing in the middle of a circle. To make it more interesting, he drew things like a house, a car, and a few friends inside the circle.

He asked the question "Can anyone tell me what this is?" In a long silence, one guy decided to throw out "the world?" The trainer said "That's close, this is your Comfort Zone. Inside your circle you have all the things that are important to you. Your home, your family, your friends, and your job. People feel that inside this circle they are safe from any danger or conflict.

"Can anyone tell me what happens when you step out of this circle?" A strong silence came over the room. The same eager guy abruptly announced "You are afraid". Another guy said "You make mistakes". The silence continued and the trainer smiled and said "When you make mistakes what can the result be?" The first guy shouts "You learn something."

"Exactly, you are learning." The trainer turned to the board and drew an arrow pointing from the stick man directly to the outside of the circle. He proceeded to say "When you leave your Comfort Zone you put yourself out there, in front of the world to be in a situations that you are not comfortable with. The end result is that you have learned something that you did not already know, you expand your knowledge to become a better person." He turned again to the board and drew a bigger circle around the original circle, and added a few new things like more friends, a bigger house etc.

"The moral of the story is that if you stay inside your Comfort Zone you will never be able to expand your horizons and learn. When you step out of your Comfort Zone you will eventually make your circle bigger, to challenge your mind and grow to be stronger, and all in all a better person."

Story submitted by Megan Gebhardt of Portland OR