the comfort zone is not a place, it's a habit

The longer you do the same thing, the less you actually see it. You know how it works, you know what people will say, you know the answer before the question is even finished... and that feels like experience. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is just a very comfortable room with the door closed.

I think the cure is boring and a bit embarrassing. Be a beginner at something again. Learn a language badly. Ask someone from a totally different business how their day looks, and really listen, without waiting for your turn to explain how you do it. Sit in a meeting where you understand maybe half of the words.

It is uncomfortable, yes. You feel slow and a little stupid. But that feeling is your head making new space.

And then something strange happens when you come back to your own work. For a while you see it with new eyes. Small things you stopped noticing years ago. Questions you stopped asking because "it was always like this".

So maybe the comfort zone is not a place you leave once. Maybe it is a habit, and you have to break it a little bit every month. I'm trying. Not always winning.