How to step out of your comfort zone, one small step at a time

The most reliable way to get out of your comfort zone, and to stay out of it, is to take one small step at a time into the space just beyond what feels easy. PiViva's Escaping Comfort Zone tool maps the things you do across four rings (Comfort, Fear, Learning and Growth) and asks you for one small outward step on each. It builds on the Learning Zone Model described by the German educationalist Tom Senninger.

Why does the big leap so often fail?

Perhaps you've had a year like this. You decide that this is finally the year you'll speak at the conference, or get to the gym five days a week, or ask for the promotion you know you deserve. You summon all your courage and take the leap, and it's every bit as terrifying as you feared.

Then something goes slightly wrong, as things often do the first time, and you find yourself retreating straight back to where you started. Worse still, you now have a story about how you tried and it didn't work out, and that story makes the next attempt feel even harder than the first.

When that happens, the usual culprit is a step that was simply too big for the moment, and there's a much kinder and more reliable way to grow.

What is the comfort zone model, and where does it come from?

The version most coaches use comes from Tom Senninger, a German educationalist, whose Learning Zone Model was set out in his 2000 book on adventure-based learning. He described three zones: comfort, learning (sometimes called stretch) and panic. Real learning, he suggested, happens in that middle zone, where things feel a little uncomfortable but not overwhelming.

Much older research points in the same direction. Back in 1908, two psychologists, Robert Yerkes and John Dodson, found that a moderate level of arousal helped performance, while too much of it made performance worse. A little pressure tends to sharpen us, whereas a great deal of it tends to shut us down.

Many coaches describe a similar idea using four rings, which is the version you'll find in PiViva. The Comfort Zone is where things feel safe and not much changes. The Fear Zone is where the excuses live, and where we worry about what other people will think. The Learning Zone is where you pick up new skills and work through problems, and the Growth Zone is where you're doing the thing you set out to do.

How does Escaping Comfort Zone work in PiViva?

You add a card for an activity or an ambition, and then drag it into the ring it honestly sits in for you today. Then you write the one small step that would move it a little further outward.

That one small step is the whole secret. A leap tends to send you straight back to Comfort, whereas a step keeps you in Learning, which is where the change actually happens. It also means that if a step doesn't go perfectly, you've lost very little, and you can simply try again or try a slightly different step next time.

Your score is the share of your cards sitting in the outer two rings, so it rises as you gradually move things outwards. You might like to pick just one card and move it this month, and see how it feels.

What if the Fear Zone feels too big to cross?

That's a very human feeling, and it's worth taking seriously. Fear tends to feel enormous when it's vague, and it usually shrinks once you look at it closely.

The Fear Audit asks you to define exactly what you're afraid of, what the worst realistic outcome would be, and how you'd prevent it or put it right if it happened. Writing it all down often shows you that the thing you've been dreading is far more manageable than it seemed.

If a belief about yourself is keeping you in Comfort, perhaps something like "I'm just not the kind of person who does that", Limiting Beliefs can help you find out where it came from and whether it still holds true. And for the moments just before you step out, the short audios on the Espresso shelf in Listen, such as "Before you walk in" and "Nerves, before you present", are there to help you through those last few minutes. Each small step makes the next one a little easier, and over time you may be surprised by how far you've travelled.