Comfort Zone: How to Conquer Fear and Grow | Anxiety Specialist | @caroline-cavanagh

should be called familiarity zone. That term just doesn't roll off the tongue quite so easily. But comfort zone means we understand how things work within it. It doesn't always mean we like doing them. However, when we step outside of the comfort zone, that's when anxiety is triggered. And that's an appropriate response. Because when you step outside of your comfort zone, you're stepping into the unknown, and the role of anxiety is to heighten your performance. And you step into what's called the fear zone, which is actually a very narrow zone, because you only ever do something the first time, once. And once you've done something, you have learning. It either works, in which case you can repeat it, or it didn't work, in which case you can change it, which then migrates you into the learning zone. And the learning zone can differ in sizing, depending on how much of a stretch it is you're trying to do. And then ultimately, beyond the learning zone, you've got the growth zone. The growth zone is then when you tend to hone that skill, you become very proficient at it. And once that proficiency level is reached, the whole of the comfort zone grows. So this just becomes a pattern of consistent moving from comfort zone into fear, into learning, into growth, new comfort zone, and off it goes again. And that's something that the teenagers are going through at a much greater rate than we do as adults.