What nobody tells you about pushing your limits

The comfort zone is one of the favourite concepts in the entrepreneurship world and a staple of coaching and personal development content. Step outside it, we’re told, and the doors to everything you’ve ever wanted will open right up.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of a concept that too often leads to genuinely dangerous territory. It was actually a conversation with one of my readers that motivated this article, and I’ll use the same analogy I used with her : my experience as a competitive swimmer in my teens.

The glorification of effort

It’s 7:30am. I’ve been in the water for over an hour. I just threw up in the pool gutter, I didn’t have the time or the strength to make it to the bathroom. It’s not the first time.

And I’m not disgusted, or embarrassed, or even uncomfortable.

I’m proud.

Because I know my coach sees this as a sign of effort pushed far enough to promise strong performance at the next competition, a few weeks out.

I look back at that fifteen-year-old girl with a perplexed eye – and at the adult responsible for her with something considerably less charitable. It should not have been normal for teenagers to be sick in a municipal pool gutter.

During my years of competitive swimming, I put my health at risk too many times. The logic was simple : the harder I trained, the further I pushed my limits, the greater the reward would be. Except it wasn’t true. Exhaustion, injury, discouragement and excess took their toll on the performances I’d hoped for. The precious hundredths of a second missing on competition day were enough to erase an entire year of sacrifice.

Until I met a different kind of coach.

Building resistance

With this new coach, we worked with training zones. A few times a year we’d do a test — 2km flat out (for those unfamiliar with swimming, this is as long and unpleasant as it sounds) — and the results determined our zones, from 1, the slowest, to 7, sprint pace. Each of us had a laminated sheet. Every session, we knew exactly which zone we were working in and at what pace.

We alternated between periods of building endurance : long kilometres at around VO2max pace, for those who know the term, and recovery sessions, sprint sessions, technique sessions… We worked at the edges of our comfort zone just enough to expand it, then came back in to recover and consolidate.

The analogy applies directly to how we use the comfort zone in life. We can brush up against its edges to grow it, then return to its centre to recover our strength. Nothing requires us to live outside it permanently. And doing so will do us no good, see : the pool gutter.

In praise of gentleness

What I told my reader is this : I believe strongly that knowing how to return to your comfort zone, to what is familiar, is a genuine skill. Recognising when you need to recover is essential.

We live in a culture that glorifies relentless movement, where slowing down or staying on a plateau isn’t exactly celebrated. And yet both are critical, to our wellbeing and to our ability to actually reach our goals.

Yes, it’s sometimes necessary to push past your current limits and prove to yourself what you’re capable of. But it’s equally important to recognise and honour the periods when you need something entirely different.

Knowing when it’s right to return to the essentials is a real quality. Simone Biles choosing to step back from competition for her mental health wasn’t a coincidence or a weakness. It was proof that returning to safety — to the comfort zone — is essential when you sense you may be in danger.

This applies across every area of life :

• You can choose to stop searching for a partner if you’re exhausted by an endless string of unsuccessful dates.
• You can pause a project you love passionately if it’s costing you everything you have.
• You can take a less demanding salaried job for a while to rest from the weight of responsibility.
• You can close your business if you feel it’s time.

Whatever you choose : remember that for your sprint zone to improve, all your other zones have to develop with it. Including the rest zone and the cruise zone.

I hope this gives you permission to slow down, to take the comfort you need, and to be a little gentler with yourself if you need more time to reach your destination.