A New Year gives everyone the chance to set new goals for the year ahead, but even after January you can still decide to try something new. Over the last 2 years we’ve had to learn to live differently, accepting change and how quickly this can happen as well as understanding others choices.
So many people find it difficult to see themselves or things differently, not willing to step out of their comfort zone by doing things that they don’t feel comfortable with doing.
- When in your comfort zone, your brain doesn’t want anything to change. Your needs are met, you can have zero stress, and your brain recognises that the body is surviving. It’s a recipe for steady performance.
- Your brain especially doesn’t like change. It requires so much energy for day-to-day activity that it doesn’t want to give extra resources to the attention required to do new things.
- Getting out of your comfort zone from time to time creates just enough good stress to ramp up your focus, creativity, pace, and drive, and it helps you respond to life stress when unexpected things happen.
Change can be an uphill battle as it is, and depending on what the scenario is, your brain might not do you any favours. There are ways to help your brain adapt to change a little more easily, but first, there are a few things to understand about your brain.
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Your brain is busy. It hogs a ton of your energy resources to do what it needs to do every day, especially when you’re sleeping.
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Your brain is lazy. Because it needs so much energy and there’s so much going on up there, it doesn’t want to do extra things. It doesn’t know the difference between a good new habit and a bad new habit, so it tries to get you to do what you’ve always done, by staying inside your comfort zone.
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Your brain wants to keep you safe. Your own survival and the survival of the species depends on avoiding danger. Humans are built to live in a world where we have everyday threats to survival, like hungry cheetahs. Sometimes your brain fires up the fear response when it’s more like, you’re a few minutes late for meeting and most likely not going to die because of it. Your brain doesn’t always respond with the proper intensity.
Because of these tendencies, your brain craves routine. But doing the same song and dance every day of your life doesn’t lead to growth and maximum performance.
Getting out of your comfort zone from time to time alters your brain’s tolerance to change, for the better. Shaking things up every now and again shows your brain that there’s nothing to fear — you’ll be fine on the other side of a little stress, and it’s worth it.
Push yourself in unfamiliar places, to do things that you wouldn’t normally do.
When thinking about stepping out of you comfort zone, You might think of things like
- Social events
- Exercise classes
- Learning something new
Ways to do this this and what you might consider
- Applying for free trails – Try before you pay as the say, it’s good to push yourself to try new things but not so good when you end up not enjoying it and you have already committed to it
- Learn something new – Is there something you wish you had done at school, maybe a different language, subject that you could have done better in. Look at further education options
- Meeting new people – Use social media and find out what kind of groups are there in your local area, this can also be good for meeting new people.
As the end looks to be insight why not focus and decide to do things differently than you were doing them before, it might end up being the best thing you’ve done.
Care first are running the webinar, ‘Try something different and step out of your comfort zone’, If you would like to view the Webinar this is being delivered live on Tuesday 25th January at 12pm, please use the below link to register for this session –
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2834540297245645325
If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place.
How can Care first help?
If you feel you may need some emotional or practical support, you can contact Care first on the Freephone number. Care first is a leading provider of confidential, professional counselling, information and advice services. Whilst our BACP accredited Counsellors are available 24/7 to provide support with emotional issues, our expertly trained Information Specialists are available 8am-8pm Monday-Friday to provide advice on any practical issues that may be causing you a stress or worry and help you feel more in control of a situation.
All employees are eligible to use Care first, our services include; telephone counselling, information services and online support. Call Care first on the Freephone number provided by your organisation and you can speak to a professional in confidence.
Please be aware that Care first is an external provider and the information in their webinars may not fully align with advice from the University on some subjects.