Chapter 9: Comfort Zones
At the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, an unknown amateur was in contention at the start of the final day. Marty Fleckman had played stellar golf the first three days but shot 80 in the final round and finished 18th. He later explained, “I finally got back on my game.”
Comfort zones are ceilings on performance. We don’t emotionally dare go outside of our comfort zones. We can have comfort zones about our income, our health, our performance, and our relationships. When we make an effort to move out of our comfort zone, we will feel discomfort and experience self-sabotage. If we have a temporary gain that takes us out of our comfort zone, we will revert back to the emotional safety of our comfort zone. We are literally uncomfortable when we're out of our comfort zone.
Tiger is so comfortable in it because he's done it so much. It doesn't mean
he's not nervous. It just means he is able to handle it better.
Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’s coach (2008).