Understanding your Zones

During this session, we will start exploring the impact that you might feel when you travel. Being away from home can often raise new fears, not only of the personal management (packing, managing travel documents and following directions) but also being able to handle unexpected situations (getting on the right bus when you can’t speak the language, working out what happens when the plane has been delayed). Taking yourself into a different environment, with new people and a new culture is an exhilarating experience but it can also be overwhelming.  

 The video below explains the different “zones” of uncertainty that we work within in our day-to-day lives and starts to give us some pointers about how to manage that sense of fear when it arises. 

As the video explains, growth and learning take place very much on the other side of fear, and yet leaving the fear zone can be a very difficult thing to do when you’re there.  Since we’re not just talking about personal goals, it’s also important to point out that fourth zone – “The Danger Zone”  – can exist when we talk about situations in life. The diagram below explains: 

Comfort Zone – Happy but bored

Fear Zone – Lack confidence, find excuses, not comfortable

Learning Zone – New skills growing, start of confidence building, ‘maybe I can do this’

Growth Zone – Curious about what you can do next, meet the goal you thought you’d never meet

Danger Zone – Overwhelmed and upset, unsafe