Expanding our business comfort zone

This piece was originally published by International Therapist magazine, Autumn 2025.

The concept of the comfort zone – a place where we can exist with relative contentment – is a minefield of conflicting advice.

To be honest, a comfort zone to me sounds kind of great; I'm picturing a massive sofa, some high quality snacks and either a great book or some trashy tv, depending on the mood.

And I guess that's why they say 'nothing great happens inside the comfort zone' – because whilst it might be safe and a good spot for recharging, it's probably not where we'll build the next level of our business.

The trouble is, the advice that goes hand in hand with this can be a bit 'feel the fear and do it anyway' or 'just push through'. And sure, that can be exhilarating, and it can definitely work.

But as a long term strategy for business growth, it can also look like smashing up your nervous system and burning out quite spectacularly (or quietly and miserably, depending on the mood).

A different approach can be to figure out what's really going on beneath the surface. What are the blocks (in our mindset, subconscious, or energy system) that are making the sofa more appealing than the stage?

In training coaches and therapists to use energy therapy with their clients, a big part of our work is asking these sorts of questions, getting the answers and then clearing the blocks. We release the resistance and stop the mind monkeys partying in our brains until 3am – and that means we can move forward, take new action and create more success, in ways that feel fun, easy and exciting.

So let's dig into what gets in the way when we want to stretch our comfort zone…

Limitations on what we see as possible

Imagine we're looking at where we can go, and all we can see is a fence. We don't know that on the other side is a huge field we can run around in, so we never make a plan to go there. That's what our brains do with our businesses, to keep us safe: 'We've created a lovely garden, let's stay inside the fence!'

But what's keeping that fence in place? Something that often happens in the energy system is that 'being happy' can get attached to 'feeling scared'. This means when we feel happy it triggers fear, so it becomes hard to easily imagine what's possible.

Feeling like we can only present success stories

When we're working in a world of shiny screens, shiny objects, and people showing off their shiny lives, it can feel like we must only share our successes. But there's so much connection in sharing failure. This isn't about commiserating or playing things down to make others feel better.

In fact, a mistake people sometimes make in telling stories about their business (especially on social media), is sharing what's going on whilst they're in the chaos. What can be really powerful – and empowering – instead, is to wait for the chaos to pass and then say:

'I tried this. It was way outside my comfort zone. It was kind of a disaster to be honest, but these are the things I learnt, this is what I overcame, and here's what I can share so you don't have to make these mistakes.'

Giving ourselves permission to talk about our flaws and failings from a position of truth later, rather than feeling like we have to confess all our errors as we make them, can be very freeing when we're trying to escape the comfort zone.

Not knowing why we see ourselves as stuck

One of the comfort zone's favourite tricks to keep us stuck is to make our thoughts cloudy. It can feel like trying to find a grain of truth in a head full of candy-floss. Often, it's so confusing that we forget to question 'why am I stuck?' or 'am I stuck?' or 'oh crikey, I'm super-stuck, now what?'

So we float along, head down, sensing something isn't quite right, but not in enough pain (yet) to do something about it. A great question to ask is 'why do I see myself as stuck?' and just see what answers are there. It bypasses the mind monkeys and gives us information we can work with.

Feeling like we need it all figured out

It's nice to have a plan and a guarantee, isn't it? We don't want to waste our time or look stupid, or make a mistake. Some of us (raising my hand) are less risk-averse than others, and we like to have every step to a new destination mapped out before we're willing to leave. And whilst this might be reasonable if we're planning a trek up Everest, it can be an obstruction to progress in our business.

It can be helpful to reflect on the leaps we've taken before. It's easy to forget that once upon a time we didn't have a business, and when we set out to build one we knew hardly anything of what was to come!

Our current success was put in motion by our past-self having an idea, feeling inspired, getting excited, figuring out just enough to get moving – and then cracking on with it.

We saw what was possible. We shared stories of the journey, and saw ourselves as capable, even if we didn't have it all figured out.

Our faith in ourselves firmed the ground under our feet, and we marched straight out of the comfort zone.

With kindness,

Michelle xx