You're either stretching - or shrinking!(From The Pegasus NLP Newsletter - 3 July 2000) The first time I saw the High Ropes Course – and especially the Trapeze Jump – I thought 'No way! Never – there's no chance I'll ever do that!' That was November 1998. I'd visited the site along with Graeme, an experienced High Ropes' instructor, because we were going to run a team-building event there. The plan was he would handle the Ropes' events and I would facilitate how people learned from their experiences on the Ropes. The snag was that not only was I reviewing but I was also going to be a participant (it was a team-building event for a new team of which I also was to be a member). So I'd have to climb the 30' pole, stand on the top and jump off it to catch a trapeze in mid-air – with a safety-rope attached to me. A few days later we were lined up wearing our helmets and safety gear and Graeme gave us the preliminary briefing. Part of this was the Comfort, Stretch, Panic model devised by High Ropes guru Karl Ronke. The model changed my perception of the event, and of my life, and I've been using it ever since in the Pegasus NLP trainings. Comfort - Stretch - PanicGraeme had us imagine that we are surrounded by three concentric circles. Around our feet was our personal Comfort Zone. Outside that by a couple of feet was our Stretch Zone. Finally, a couple of feet outside this was our Panic Zone. 'Imagine that everything you're familiar with is within your Comfort zone. Such as travelling to and from work, doing familiar everyday things, etc. Now consider things that you do but are not so comfortable with. Things you are either awkward with or are somewhat apprehensive of. These fall within your Stretch Zone. Things that you believe you could not possibly do are in your Panic Zone.' Our Comfort Zone is just that – comfortable. But if we stay within our comfort zone we never develop or learn. That only occurs when we move briefly into Stretch and return to Comfort. Soon what was in Stretch becomes comfortable and then we find a new stretch. But we avoid the Panic Zone. Moving in there simply causes severe fear and can put us off stretching for long periods. (Because of a long-standing fear of heights I originally found the High Ropes terrifying. But, at the time and because of the silly macho side of my nature, I forced myself to endure lots of Panic Zone experiences that day. And nearly put myself off the Ropes course altogether.) Later I thought about Ronke's model and re-approached the Ropes in order to get better at the activities and with a view to eventually becoming an Instructor. Using the model I pushed myself ONLY to the far edge of Stretch – then came back within Comfort. So, for example, I might climb nearly to the top and then come down. Next time – might be fifteen minutes or a few days later – I'd go higher. Until I'd brought the activity well inside my Stretch Zone. Then I'd move on to another, more challenging activity. Soon I could do all of the activities without entering Panic and this year became an Instructor. The Lesson ... The moral/relevance of the story? The Comfort Stretch Panic applies to life in general, too. It is a simple-but-powerful model for having a happier and more fulfilling life. We cannot remain static. We either grow or we shrink - physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. If we spend our time in the Comfort Zone we eventually discover that fewer and fewer activities are comfortable – they start to become a Stretch. Some of them eventually become Panic activities. The things they did as teenagers or young people can be viewed as alien to doddering thirty-somethings. It is a bit scary how quickly we shrink our Stretch Zone – by no longer moving into it. Take physical fitness for example. If you do not endure the unfamiliarity and the slight discomfort of progressively demanding exercise what happens? You loose fitness. After 6 weeks without strenuous exercise you have lost 80% of your fitness! You have to keep pushing your boundaries. Use it or loose it. How about relationships? You meet someone, settle down, with or without starting a family. Soon the novelty and excitement wanes. Familiarity breeds laziness. You settle into routines. It's Friday we'll have a bottle of wine and a pizza. It's Sunday let's lie in bed till mid-day. Etc. Soon you stop making new friends, loose touch with old ones, and become dependent on one-another. And your social skills shrink, too. How about ageing. Many people start doing less and less with each passing decade. Staying in the Comfort Zone becomes all-important! They loose their vitality because they loose their interest in living – and they carry on, just existing. There's no stretch – 'I'm too old for all that, now!' So there's shrinkage. Mental and physical... 'What's on the telly tonight, dear?' Depressing stuff or a warning? You decide! Are you always growing, stretching? Or are you shrinking? Because you cannot stand still. People who retire die earlier than people who carry on working because the latter are more stimulated by doing and stretching than by lapsing into Comfort. Start stretching. Begin engaging in activities that take you briefly into Stretch. When they become Comfort activities find new ones. New challenges, new stimuli, new discoveries. It's not just going to prevent shrinkage – it will certainly revitalise you! (From The Pegasus NLP Newsletter - 3 July 2000) There is a follow-on article here: http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/comfort_stretch_panic_2.htm © 2000-2009 Reg Connolly - but you can freely pass this newsletter on to friends as long as you do so in its entirety, include this message and link: http://www.nlp-now.co.uk. Please contact us if you would like to reproduce this article in your own newsletter. | 
