Changes in behavior are primarily changes in habits. This is quite a demanding feat for adults! In order to understand how behavior can be permanently changed, it is therefore important to realize how habits are formed.

We all have a comfort zone. This is the area where we feel safe. In which we know “which way the wind is blowing,” in which we are competent. Change, growth, and personal development rarely occur within this comfort zone. But if that is exactly what we want, we must leave the comfort zone – because development takes place just outside the comfort zone.

If you imagine the comfort zone as a circle, development occurs in the area directly outside, which we could refer to as expansion zone. This is the area in which your potential is lying that you have not yet expressed, but into which you are still able to develop.

Get out of the comfort zone

In other words, to achieve sustainable change, to develop and grow, it is an essential step to get out of the comfort zone and into this expansion zone. Unfortunately, this also means that this development step feels somewhat unpleasant or “uncomfortable,” because new experiences are involved that we do not yet know and which are therefore not part of our comfort zone yet. 

And if you remember the last 10, 15 years – things that lie in your comfort zone today were very probably still outside back then. The same applies conversely to experiences that are still outside the zone today. Your comfort zone grows with every new experience you are gaining and by which you are growing. 

Don’t panic!

What is important in this process is not to end up in the “panic zone.” It could be defined as the area beyond the expansion zone. There, where the ice is getting thin, because you are not yet ready for this experience or you do not have the necessary competences and talents that are needed to be successful in the relevant area.

If you still venture out there, however, because you might expect a little too much of yourself and the ice suddenly cracks, there is a high probability that you will not make this step, out into this kind of experience, anymore. It is therefore important to only go out into the expansion zone. You will realize that it feels uncomfortable, but it is still somewhat fun or at least you have the impression that you can still control the situation.

Now you have learned how behavioral change can succeed. Read in the next blog how you can sustainably establish behavioral change.