Step out often... its good for your chess and life.

What You Get When You beat the routine!

Doing something strange and new - something you wouldn't normally do - like getting out of your daily routine or comfort zone seems weary and a huge strain. There's a lot of research on why it's so hard to break out of your 'comfort zone', and it's now proved to be a good idea to do it. With a little realization you too can do great things. How does this help us in Chess?

But what is this Comfort Zone? Why is it that when we're introduced to new and interesting things, the interest fades fast? And what benefits do we get by breaking out of our comfort zone?

And how do we go about doing it?

Our comfort zone is neither a good or bad thing. It's a natural state that we live in daily. Moving out of it means increased risk and stress/anxiety, which can have good and bad results, but its not entirely the only reason for staying away from it. We all need that peace of mind where we're least anxious and stressed so we can better handle sudden stress or workload that we may get suddenly.

What do you really get when you're willing to step outside?

 Improved Problem solving skills: 

Anxiety and stress can make you find better ways to learn efficiently or do things in a better way. Similarly learning happens at a faster pace so the efficiency/time ration increases rapidly. This gives you confidence, when you do have a situation that you may not be able to handle for reasons out of your control, on a chess board. 

So - try solving more positions daily or analyze more games whenever you have the opportunity, rather than sitting down in front of the TV and wasting your time in a mindless pursuit.

Prepared to cope with new and unexpected changes:

Mr. Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, explains that one of the worst things we can do is pretend that fear and uncertainty don't exist. By taking risks in a controlled fashion and challenging yourself to things you normally wouldn't do, you expose yourself to some of that uncertainty in the comfort of your homes to make you learn how to overcome that problem in a factual way minus the rush of adrenalin.  

The next time you are faced with an unexpected problem in the real game, you will have additional adrenalin to manage but also the wisdom of that training you undertook in your lab.

You'll find it easier to push your limits in the future: 

Once you start stepping out of your comfort zone, it starts getting easier over time. As you step out of your comfort zone, you'll become used to that state of controlled stress. Adversity becomes more manageable to you, and you're willing to push farther before your stamina falls off. As you challenge yourself, your comfort zone adjusts its limits so what was difficult and stressful gets easier as you are constantly learning and evolving in your LAB training. So don't be discouraged with any absence of immediate results. It takes time to harden and it happens at a very subtle level.

Other fringe benefits include a better and healthier life, calmness that is new, acceptance of disciplined approach, perception of what is REALLY important, application of chess training to other disciplines such as studies and business and last but not the least - a mind that has expanded into new horizons.

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So how to break out of your comfort zone? Let's discuss that in my next post. Keep watching or follow me!