Our comfort zones are like a nice warm bath, or a comfy sofa, they are designed to make us relax, kick back and forget about our troubles.
The problem is, that in order to achieve our full potential, we need to get outside our comfort zones.
Even worse, the longer we stay within our comfort zone, the smaller it becomes. It starts to contract slowly, not only preventing us from achieving our full potential, but over time it actually reduces our current capability.
We need to keep pushing against the edges of our comfort zone, as a minimum, just to maintain our current capabilities.
I find this is definitely true with the running that I do. If I start to ease up and slow the pace or distances on the training runs I make, then even within a couple of weeks, I find it difficult to match what I was doing only 2 weeks ago, let alone improving my performance.
I have run two marathons, and am currently training for a third, but today even though I have run 42km twice last year, I would find it difficult to run even 30km, let alone 42k.
I need to work my training back up to a level where I can do the longer distances.
Why is that?
Thats because my comfort zone shrank, as soon as I had completed my last marathon and then reduced my training, my comfort zone became smaller. It didn’t stay at 42km, my comfort zone reduced to be closer to my new level of training.
It’s the old ‘use it or lose it routine‘.
Gordon Tredgold
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