Comfort Zone

A comfort zone is that area you are happy to operate within. Some peoples comfort zones will allow them to run across a football pitch stark naked and other peoples comfort zone means they will not leave the house.

Your child's comfort zone will determine how they interact with other children, deal with new challenges, learn, and their level of confidence. In a nutshell, your child's success as a child and later on as an adult is totally linked to their comfort zone.

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As a professional my work requires a great deal of public speaking on a daily basis, talking and dealing with new people and having new experiences on a regular basis. Now my level of comfort requires me to do things many people are uncomfortable in doing.

A mentor of mine made a profound statement. "Successful people are successful because they are willing to do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do."

Another mentor of mine made the statement. "Mr Edwards your WZ (Wealth Zone) is determined by your CZ (Comfort Zone).

In view of the fact your child's comfort zone is linked to their wealth zone, what will you do to get your child to step out of their comfort zone? As loving parents we instinctively protect our children, wrapping our hands around them with love, but some times that protection can involve unwittingly keeping them in a comfort zone that doesn't serve them.

A child's comfort zone could mean they are comfortable with; family activities, playing with friends and computer games and outside that comfort zone could be self discipline, public speaking, taking the lead, meeting new people or trying something new.

STEPPING OUTSIDE OF THE COMFORT ZONE

Stepping outside of the comfort zone

As mentioned before, a child is a miracle of creation. They are born with all the confidence they need, they're uninhibited and are not afraid to make a fool of themselves. The thing that brings that powerful personality to a stop is conditioning.

Things such as having a reserved nature, shyness, and fear are all taught. A child quickly learns what he is comfortable with by his interpretation of his surroundings.

My little daughter on seeing a spider for the first time was naturally curious about this creature with 8 legs scurrying across the living room floor. On seeing my partner move away from the spider at a rapid rate, my daughter instantly learned to fear spiders and is no longer comfortable being around them.

As children experience life, their comfort zones will in many cases continue to shrink depending on how we allow it. Remember every experience is virtually new for them. Do we allow their comfort zone to continually shrink or do we gradually, lovingly, coach and strategically help them to move outside their comfort zone. It's not hard to do, but does require time.

TIPS FOR INCREASING YOUR CHILD'S COMFORT ZONE

Tips for increasing your child's comfort zone:

1. Try and identify what areas your child may find uncomfortable. This way you can make small steps to desensitise their reserved nature or change what negatives they associate to stepping out of their comfort zone.

2. As mentioned before, reward or praise small steps as this will teach them that success is linked to the size of your comfort Zone.

3. Role-play and make steps to introduce new things and experiences so as to broaden their experiences and lessen the things they are not comfortable with.

4. Anything you do requires a means of reviewing your progress so as a rule keep stock of your achievements.