Taking on the Right Level of Challenge
We recognize that to grow, to bring forth high, hard things into our lives, we have to stretch out of our comfort zones.
But are you stretching into flow? Or into even more anxiety and shut down?
We cultivate excitement and flow when we take on challenge... but just the right amount of challenge.
The Three Levels of Challenge
I don’t even remember where I first learned these levels, so I can’t cite the source!
But we have three levels of challenge in our lives.
Comfort Circle
There’s no challenge here - and that’s not always a bad thing! This is where we come to get nurtured, to feel familiar, to diversify our risk portfolio. This is where we spend time in the known.
The downside here is that we are motivated by challenge, by mastery, by autonomy. We get excited by novelty, get that “thrill” of the new and unexpected, and that actually helps us focus and pay attention.
Where in your life can you cultivate novelty and excitement to keep motivated?
Terror Town
We’ve taken on a challenge with the gap that’s too much. We ambitious creatures have big missions, want to take on high, hard goals (h/t Steven Kotler), and to get motivated, we take on BIG steps.
But that change is too much for our brain to take in. We are wired for safety, to avoid threat. When things are too much to tolerate, we get into fight, flight, or freeze.
We get anxious, overwhelmed, or hyper vigilant. Or we numb out, withdraw, or feel shame.
Ultimately, we are thrown out of focus and flow and have to push harder to move forward.
Where in your life are you taking on challenges that put you in “Terror Town”?
Learning Land
The sweet spot. Enough challenge to feed your body with good chemicals like dopamine, enough mastery that the work won’t kick you into terror and will keep you moving forward.
Learning land is smaller than you imagine. This is why BJ Fogg talks about Tiny Habits - small steps that look so easy you could trip over them, but it wires the brain for the new habit in a manner that’s non-threatening.
What are some steps to go from Terror Town to Learning Land?
Break down big goals into small chunks: Feeling overwhelmed about launching that new marketing campaign or hiring your first team? Let’s break down the big goal into a series of much smaller actions and tasks.
Diversify your risk profile: When making a change, don’t burn everything to the ground. If you quit your job, find a network of people you care about and that care about you and show up. If you are training for an event, take care of your sleep and nutrition.
Bring in supportive resources and rituals: I’m able to do more challenging things like be on video or make that pitch when I know I have support from my community. Or when I regulate my nervous system first with sleep, hydration, and compassion. I use a ritual when I post on social media: I imagine speaking to just one person in my audience and imagine the feeling when that post might change their day.
Visualize and Practice: It’s hard at first! But keep taking on things that stretch you just a bit. We then expand our library of priors that tells us we can do hard things and expand our window of tolerance.