Healthy risk taking to expand your comfort zone.

The human species, in a grand display of backwards evolution is being herded towards increasing comfort, convenience and ease in life. Automation, delivery services, 1-click purchasing all fuels the consumer’s rampant hunger for a perceived improvement in life and in doing so ultimately enabling more time spent plugged into digital opiate.

I was approached by my son’s school, and was asked to present to an audience of all students in Years 6-8 (boys aged from 9 to 12~13).

I chose to speak about how brittle we are becoming and the value of hard work and discomfort.

Tough audience. Wide range of attention spans. Wide range of interests. Minimal tolerance for boring old guys who speak at them with some abstract talk that makes no contextual sense for their age and experience in life.

I opened with a striking picture of a mountaineer standing on a icy summit ridge, looking towards an approaching storm, furious wind and bullet hail about to arrive. I spoke about how hard the mountaineer worked to reach this place. Then I dived into the story of how they methodically descended through the storm to safer and more horizontal terrain.

I heard the loud, reflexive gasp from the audience when I revealed that this picture is a photograph that I took of my climbing partner during one of our most epic climbing missions, when we encountered a freak storm that tested our ability to handle extreme stress, to perform flawlessly in a highly challenging and dangerous situation.

We explored why anyone would want to experience such hardship. Or more simply…

Why choose challenge and risk over comfort and safety?

Some say that staying in your comfort zone is bad. I say that it’s good to be in your comfort zone regularly, in order to rest, recover, heal, adapt to, reflect upon and assimilate the many things you experience while you are under stress.

Some say that choosing to climb a mountain is madness. I say that it’s one of my best expressions of a life fully lived.

We talked about risk. How do you assess risk? How do you approach a risky situation? How do you effectively reduce risk and increase safety?

Why is gradual risk taking a healthy thing?

We talked about personal growth when we regularly step outside of our comfort zones. I showed pictures of my sons climbing small boulders with me, progressing eventually to climbing hard routes in some pretty incredible locations.

I highlighted that these arduous journeys shape who I am, and they enable me to remain calm under pressure, to breath, listen, be curious, step into a challenge and quest my way towards a good outcome.

I also highlighted that it’s a neverending apprenticeship and that one must continuously strive and practice as a beginner would.

Throughout this time I presented the classic concentric rings visual, depicting the comfort zone in the middle and increasingly riskier zones in outer rings.

We focused on a rhythm of taking on incrementally difficult challenges and returning to the comfort zone, and then repeating this. Eventually this will develop one’s ability to handle a diverse range of situations in daily life.

Challenge, hard work, good stress, rest and recovery leads to a beautiful adaption. Greater resilience and deeply felt self esteem.

A growing comfort zone.

Then, I showed them a picture of me lead climbing a rock route. I felt that I was in the blue zone in my corresponding comfort zone visual. This is only achieved after years of practice and gradual assimilation of lessons learned through mental, physical and emotional hardship. I also mentioned that in both stories, I was accompanied by a great friend and partner in adventure, which made the journey so much more enjoyable and rewarding.

In my blue zone.

I’m told that the level of engagement and interaction during and after the presentation was significantly more than most. They probably say that to all speakers, ha!

Hopefully my choice of topic wasn’t too abstract. Hopefully my use of language was just right for the diverse age group. Hopefully someone in that room might remember these words and take a deep breath as they choose to lean into something that challenges them and pushes them to grow.