We all seem to love a nice comfort zone, don’t we? Comfort zones are like little sanctuaries that welcome us in for a cosy chat and a nice cup of tea. We feel all safe and warm in our little comfort zones, secure in the knowledge that nothing or no one is going to cause us discomfort.
Martial artists are particularly susceptible to staying within the comfort zone, largely due to the routine nature of the training. Every session we tend to go over the same things all the time. In one sense this is necessary because we have to repeat things over and over in order to master them, but in another sense this repetitiveness can go against us and make us slaves to habit if we are not careful.
Take sparring, for example. Because we have the same people at every session usually we often end up sparring those same people over and over, to the point were we get to know each opponent’s strengths and weaknesses intimately. We can almost predict every move before they make it. The result of this is that we don’t feel pushed or under any real pressure and we become too comfortable. This might be enjoyable but it doesn’t help us any in terms of actually progressing as fighters. To progress as a fighter you have to spar different people on a regular basis. Each time you come up against a different opponent your mettle is tested because you don’t know what they are going to do, how they are going to react or how aggressive they are going to be. The unknown puts us under pressure and forces us to draw upon resources within ourselves that are very rarely tapped when operating within a comfort zone.
The martial arts were never designed with comfort zones in mind. They were designed to bring out the best in people by forcing them to push themselves to their physical and mental limits. The originators of the martial arts, when they were designing their training methods, made those training methods tough. They also understood that for a student to progress those training methods had to be made progressively tougher, otherwise a student would just end up residing in staleness and non-progression.
As martial artists we have to continually seek discomfort. We have been conditioned over the years by misguided parents and an agenda driven media to believe that discomfort is a bad thing that should be avoided at all costs. Certain sections of society have a vested interest in providing us with things to help us build up a comfort zone, things like TV and celebrity culture, things that distract us and stop us from thinking too much, things that ultimately make it very difficult for us to make something of ourselves, to challenge the status quo.
You don’t think too much when you’re in a comfort zone. You don’t think about how you can make yourself better. In a comfort zone you just switch of and let habit take over. This feels nice at the time but it doesn’t get you any closer to your goals or were you want to be in life. Seeking discomfort is the only way to break out of this non-productive zone. Discomfort is good because if you’re feeling discomfort then you know you’re doing something that is going to help you move and progress.
Moving away from comfort zones is a constant battle because even when you break out of one you find yourself moving into another. What once made you uncomfortable now makes you feel comfortable and before you’ve even had the chance to congratulate yourself on your forward progress you find yourself becoming stale once more. So you have to be switched on all the time. You have to be constantly aware so that you don’t slip back into the non-productive zone again. You have to keep pushing yourself.
There are some things you can do to prevent yourself getting too stuck in a training comfort zone. Below are some methods that have worked well for me over the years.
1. Know Where You Are Going. To stop yourself so easily falling into a comfort zone in your training I find it really helps to know what direction you want your training to go in. You should draw upon your mental focus and set goals for yourself so that you can constantly monitor how far away you are from achieving those goals. Ask yourself this question: Is what I am doing now sending me towards achieving my goals? If the answer is no and what you are doing is not helping you achieve your goals then you need to regroup and decide what you have do instead that will move you further along the path of achievement.
If, for instance, one of your training goals is to be a better grappler and you are only training with opponents who are at the same level as yourself (because you feel comfortable doing that) then in order to get better you would have to seek out better opponents, opponents who are more highly skilled than you because that’s the only way you will experience any forward progress. You need opponents who are going to push you to your limits and make you experience a certain amount of discomfort. Out of such discomfort will come progress and you will be closer to achieving your goal of being a better grappler.
2. Visualization. Your current comfort zone is largely a by product of the pictures that you have made in your head. Given that your mind has no way of distinguishing between what is real and what is imagined, making a continuous picture of doing something you haven’t done before is a great way to break out of the comfort zone. As with any self improvement method, the key to effective visualization is commitment and consistency.
3. Affirmations. You can also affirm your way out of your comfort zone. Take whatever your current comfort zone is, such as “I can only kick to mid-section” and change it to “I can kick to head height.” Spend 21 days with the new affirmation as your mantra, and you will quickly break out of your comfort zone. For added power, combine the affirmation with a visualization of were you want to be at.
4. Just Do It! To borrow a phrase from a Nike ad, JUST DO IT. As annoying as this might sound, this is probably one of the fastest, most effective ways to break out of your comfort zone. It is also the method that has worked best for me over the years. Usually the point beyond your comfort zone is just fear of the unknown. However your current comfort zone was also an unknown at one point. Once you’ve done whatever it is you have feared, it is no longer an unknown. Don’t dwell too much on the fact that you have never sparred with this guy before or you have never done that technique before, just do it. Don’t let doubts and insecurities get in the way of your progress, just bite the bullet and jump in with both feet. Pretty soon you’ll begin to feel comfortable…and then you’ll have to push yourself all over again!
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Further Resources
“But, what if I fail?”: Living Life Beyond Your Comfort Zone
Fear: The Friend of Exceptional People: How to Turn Negative Attitudes in to Positive Outcomes
Shape Shifter: Transform Your Life in 1 Day
