You may have heard the term “comfort zone” thrown around before, but let’s talk about what that really means. Most people generally interpret it as a state of feeling comfortable and happy, and in most situations that is a fine definition. In recreation, there are three recognised zones: Comfort, stretch, and panic.

Ideally, you are living in your comfort zone. Here you know what you are doing and how to do it, you have little to no anxiety and can function in a “comfortable” manner.

The stretch zone is also called the challenge zone. This is where you are trying new things, pushing the boundaries of what you feel comfortable with, and setting new goals.

Past this is the panic zone. If you are in the panic zone things feel impossible or overly difficult, you are overwhelmed by stress, and even things that you are normally fine with feel unmanageable.

To “live your best life” you need to spend time in both your comfort and challenge zones, while staying out of the panic zone as much as possible. Obviously, life doesn’t always work the way we want it, and sometime you are going to find yourself in the panic zone, but it is when you feel like you are spending a significant amount of time every day in the panic zone that you need to make a change.

That’s where I’m at right now. Spending far too much of my time in my panic zone, stressed and overwhelmed, no energy to do anything but survive. I also felt like I was spending very little time in my challenge zone, spending every evening retreating to my comfort zone in an effort to recover and prepare for the next day. So I am making a change. I had settled for living a life that was “okay” in the hopes it would one day lead to my “dream job”.

I have always been a dreamer and a lover of stories, so I decided that I was done waiting for my dreams to come true, and instead I was going to get up and make them.

So here I am, the intrepid heroine setting off across the mountains to take back my future.

That makes it sound grander than it is.

Off we go…