Comfort Zone

P.Natarajan.

Comfort Zone :-

Comfort Zone is a behavioral state. A guest is looked after well with an objective that he feels comfortable. We give more attention when the guest happens to be a VIP like a new son-in-law or his parents so that they would feel more comfortable. A sofa is meant to provide comfort when seated. If the interview is not free from stress, it causes anxiety and makes the person uncomfortable. When the living goes well with adequate income, it is referred as comfortable earnings. When children snug in their beds, they are seen to be comfortably sleeping. When we relax with a book for sometime, we remark that we spent a restful hour in reading.

The term comfort zone when applied to work situations bears a deeper meaning and need to be properly understood by the employee. In a well equipped conditions of work, an employee can do justice by working for eight hours and he is said to be efficient. In case the same employee is assigned to look after some additional job, his performance drops down during the normal working hours. It needs to be understood that his output showed a steady state of performance when he was not assigned the additional job. The earlier state was his comfort zone, free of anxiety or risk. When he was loaded with extra assignment, it crossed the limit of his comfort zone. In other words, he found himself not prepared to face the challenge.

There are ways and means to tackle the situation. An accomplished employee can step outside his comfort zone. He is able to condition his mind.
He is well aware that enhanced concentration in work is called for to take up the additional burden. Once he accepts that as a prerequisite, he will not complain but instead comply with the requirement of the additional job. He is able to step out of his original comfort zone and set-up a new high in his zone of comfort with regard to work. His efficiency does not decrease but instead goes up. He not only increases his self image but also enhances his image as seen by others. When working within the comfort zone, you continue to get what you have been getting, but when you stretch beyond, you are able to accomplish new high in the comfort zone and your possibility zone expands, also your horizon and opportunity for good.

Neale Donald Walsch,  American author of the series 'Conversations with the God' describes about the comfort zone of work:-

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
pn