Hi Reader,

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Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where every Sunday I send out a positive or productive idea for the week ahead, at 4.05pm (and occasionally, when I screw it up, 4.05am).

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This week I've been thinking a lot about comfort zones. I've been 'putting myself out there' a lot recently, in service of getting publicity for my book (I don't know if you've heard, but I've got a book out).

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You may have seen I had a big double page spread interview in The Times. I'm really happy with how it came out, and it's had a lovely reaction, but through the process of being interviewed and then waiting for it to come out, I told a few people I'd been feeling a bit weird about it. It felt far outside my comfort zone. My friend Mark Leruste told me: "oh, it's probably a vulnerability hangover". It wasn't a term I was familiar with, but it resonated straight away.

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And it's been the same with some of the marketing stuff in the last few weeks. It's been very much on the edge of what feels comfortable for me, and I've had a bit of a battle with myself over many months to figure it all out.

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But guess what? The stuff on the edge of our comfort zone is often where the energy is. Without a bit of calculated risk, there's no growth. I'm glad I did those things, even though they felt hard, 'not very me' and even knowing that sharing my story about my son Roscoe in the book and even more so with a journalist from The Times felt full of personal risk.

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If we spend our lives just doing what's comfortable, or trying to satisfy our lizard brain's demands that we avoid conflict, reduce the risk of embarrassment and keep things as safe as possible, then we don't take the risks that lead to rewards.

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And yet there are limits too. When we are too far out of our comfort zone, we could end up in genuine danger - skydiving before you're ready isn't a good idea. Or if we get out of our comfort zone just the right amount but a bit too regularly, that takes a bit of concentration and adrenaline, so we have watch our resilience and make sure we don't drain our energy levels.

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So this week (because I often really write these emails for me), I invite you to think about your life in these three zones:

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• The comfort zone
• The risk zone
• The danger zone

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...and to think about how you can get the right balance between these three. Here are a few questions to get you thinking:

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• Are there any parts of life or work where you feel like you're out of your comfort zone right now?
• Are there things that felt risky at the time that feel comfortable now?, or felt like danger before, but healthy risk now?
• And what feels like a step too far, or where you need to pull back from danger?

Have a great week,

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Graham

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PS - On Tuesday evening I'm doing a talk about 'KIND' for my friends at Action for Happiness. It's free. If you want to join us, then you can find out more here. ​

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