| Sent Wednesday 6th of September
Hey there, here’s a framework;
Comfort Zone -> Growth Zone -> Danger Zone
You probably don’t know, but I host a hiking group where I live with two friends. We take hikes twice a week into the jungle behind our town and we’ve had literally thousands of people join us in the last few years. On Tuesday’s in the summer we do ‘Hard Hikes’. These are exploratory, hot and difficult. For me they are still mostly all in my comfort zone (because I have done so many), for many these hikes are in people’s Growth Zones and for many, they don’t come… It’s their Danger Zone.
Meet Samir;
Samir was just a nice normal twenty something who stayed at my friends hostel. He was hesitant about coming on the hike once he understood how had it would be. But he decided he could do it.
We then got to a fork in the hike where you can either stay and wait for the rest of the party to return or swim 100m UP a river and boulder your way up stream for another 30mins to a waterfall. Samir didn’t think he could make it so he was going to stay there and wait. A couple of minutes of weighing up the options and understanding the support he would receive from us, he decided to come.
At the waterfall there was another decision; chill down the bottom with the group or join a few of us climbing a 14m cliff face to make a 12m jump off a rock into the waterfall. Some careful consideration later and understanding of the support he would receive and not long after he was flying through the air into the pool below.
Then the monsoon hit. The river flooded. Streams turned into rivers and we had to find alternate routes home. It was an adventure.
This is the
Growth Zone
A place where you are supported in doing things you wouldn’t normally do.
It’s stressful. But Stress + Rest = Growth.
The key for Samir was the support and the understanding of how the risks were reduced because of that support. That’s what made sure that he was never in the Danger Zone.
Imagine if he was out there all alone. That would be dangerous and not helpful for his growth. Whereas when I was alone, on trail, in the middle of cyclones with a twisted ankle I still didn’t feel like I was in my Danger Zone because I had already expanded my Comfort Zone for these situations so much that a situation like that did feel like a Growth Zone. I felt supported by my own experience.
Samir had a phenomenal day and thanked us all for it.
You’ve heard all the Comfort Zone cliches. They are what they are. But the question is;
Where is your Growth Zone?
What stress can you choose right now that allows you to be supported through it as well as rest after it?
If we can create these conditions we can make everything more (relatively) comfortable and allow ourselves to thrive in opportunities that would have previously made us freeze.
Much love,
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