Ready to Uplevel? Define Your Personal Expansion Zone
Don't leave your comfort zone. S-T-R-E-T-C-H your Zone of Comfort.
When I’m working with a client who is focused on being a braver leader or creative, there is almost always something they forget.
They were already brave.
My clients are all extremely brave. They do hard things. They’ve been resilient through struggles. They haven’t hired me to help them be brave. They’ve hired me to help them be braver.
Great leaders feel they can always be more brave. There’s always more to work toward, to change, to unravel.
There’s always more braver work to be done.
My work is helping them expand their comfort zone because this, to me, is The Fix to being willing and able to do braver work.
It’s true that our genes and nature as well as our culture condition\ us to stay in our comfort zones — creating a very strong discomfort avoidance strategy.
After all, Radical Comfort — not discomfort — should be the goal, right? Hence all the cozy vibes going on everywhere. Let me wrap myself in a blanket and build a fort and hide out for, like, ever.
As it turns out, people will spend a lot of money to stay in their comfort zone.
But we won’t invest nearly as much in support and resources for doing hard things and that is what I see as the difference between those who are playing bolder and those who are not.
One thing I’ve noticed about my clients is the more they invest wholeheartedly in support for themselves to DO hard things, the faster they get to their more meaningful goals — and the more impactful work they do.
Stretching your zone of comfort is a practice, a lifetime journey — not a once and done.
When I work with leaders, one of the biggest topics of courage we discuss is how to do the hard things more consistently.
Every single day YOU could be working toward stretching your zone of courage.
And you should be.
Braving YES Lab Experiment
Let’s Define Your Expansion Zone …
The Expansion Zone is where you walk to the edge of your comfort zone, slowly expanding your resilience and courage muscles.
This is how you stretch your ZONE OF COMFORT so you can set bigger goals and play bolder in your work.
»» Clarity is essential — Courage doesn’t happen with brain fog.
Overwhelm is a buzz killer.
Setting “just right” goals or intentions that align with you and your values — and your strengths and vision — is a powerful way to upgrade yourself and move into expansion. You should feel grounded and in flow with the stretch goals you set. The right intentions and goals will level up your playing field.
A question to ask yourself right now: What actions am I doing on a regular basis that keep me grounded in my comfort zone rather than stretching my zone of comfort?
»» Surround yourself with next-level support
FYI — Your partner doesn’t have the bandwidth to be your fallback business coach or mentor.
Take the pressure off your relationships and seek out someone who has the capacity to encourage you and be your biggest cheerleader - preferably with some solid expertise and experience in upleveling.
I serve as a rumble partner for my clients who are doing new, brave things and it’s an honor. When I am about to make a Brave YES Power Move in my own life, I make sure to have the right support by my side. That means people who care about me and aren’t going to let me off the hook.
A question to ask yourself right now: What would reaching UP for unconditional support feel like for me? Where do I need someone to call me out? Who is best for this kind of support?
»» Uplevel your Resilience
Prepare your mind, body and spirit for the hard things. And most of it is hard.
Doing hard things, taking risks means you must be ready for the fallout. There will be discomfort. There will be fear. There will be doubt. There will be rejection or, even, failure. You must be ready. Raise your resilience and, in turn, raise your discomfort tolerance.
A Question to Ask Yourself: What is my current response or resistance pattern when discomfort shows up?
»» Invest in Boosting Your Capacity
Upleveling your energy and capacity is not all about float tanks and bubble baths. There’s INNER work to do.
You won’t Play Bolder if you are tired, overwhelmed or burned out.
You’ll just want to zone out on the couch or take naps. You must stabilize your energy and capacity for both your life and business circumstances in order to take risks that create momentum, traction and impact.
A Question to Ask Yourself: What life or business energy zappers may be holding me back right now from stretching my zone of comfort?
»» Develop Emotional Safety Practices
You don’t have to feel the fear and do it anyway — that’s BS.
You can, instead, work on redefining your comfort zone by making sure you are taking appropriate, values-based and strengths-aligned risks for you and your business. I never work with clients and make you go from A to Z in a single week. It takes time to stretch your comfort zone.
A Question to Ask Yourself: When do you feel safe? What kind of a perfect environment do you need to do braver work?
BRAVING YES LAB EXPERIMENT
After you’ve explored the questions above, take note of your answers by taking time to simply reflect. Notice what comes up for you when you read through your answers. Make any additional notes of what stands out to you as Inner Work and Outer Work.
Create a visual image of what your Expansion Zone contains that allows you to feel safe, comfortable and brave. You can doodle, use descriptive words, a list, a collage, whatever you use to get a good visual in place.
Pick one or two actions to take that will help you start to step into your Expansion Zone. Keep a journal of how you feel as you take these steps.
