You Think You’re Playing Safe By Staying Still? Think Again.

Is Your Comfort Zone Really Keeping You Safe?

Last night, I was catching up with a few former colleagues — all brilliant, committed people who’ve been in the same company and often the same division for 10, 15, even 20+ years.

A theme came up that I haven’t been able to shake: comfort zones that don’t feel comfortable anymore. Because staying in one place for a long time can offer stability, familiarity, and community. But it can also quietly erode your confidence, your spark, and your sense of professional possibility.

And it made me reflect: Is the status quo really as safe as we think it is?

Growth Isn’t Always Upwards — Sometimes It’s a Shift Sideways

In my own career, staying engaged and fulfilled meant reinventing parts of my role every couple of years. Not a big leap. Not leaving the company. But evolving.

I added coaching to my leadership toolkit simply because I felt deeply called to it. It changed the way I led, the way I developed people, and ultimately, the trajectory of my career. I built a programme, wove coaching into how I supported my team, and it brought me alive again.

My colleagues have done similar things:

• One moved from R&D → Field Applications → Marketing, each shift stretching different parts of him.

• Another stepped out of traditional marketing into commercial operations and sales effectiveness, discovering strengths she didn’t know she had.

None of these were giant exits. They were conscious, strategic evolutions — small pivots that kept them sane, motivated, and growing.

But Then There Was the Conversation That Stopped Me.

One colleague looked me straight in the eye and admitted:

“I’m not fulfilled. The environment isn’t great. I’m bored.

But I have a 10-year plan, so I’m staying.”

She has two small children. A lot of responsibility. And she said it with the resigned certainty of someone quietly choosing a slow decline over a disruptive change. So I asked her gently:

“You’re going to stay like this for ten years?

Her nod said everything. Because even if you call it stability…Even if you justify it with logic, finances, or fear…Staying somewhere unfulfilling for that long isn’t stability. It’s erosion.

Fear Makes Stagnation Look Like Safety

What’s holding her back?

• Finances

• Scarcity

• Fear of change

• Fear of the economy

• Fear of being the one who moves while others are being laid off

These fears are legitimate. They’re also exactly the kind of fears that keep women stuck — especially mid-level women in large STEM organisations, where the stakes feel high and the uncertainty feels constant.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Staying in a role that drains you will cost you more than leaving it.

Not financially; emotionally. From first hand experience, I can tell you with 100% certainty that when you stay somewhere unfulfilling for years:

• your confidence shrinks

• your self-esteem erodes

• your risk tolerance collapses

• and eventually, your ability to move at all disappears

You don’t stand still. You slowly become smaller.

So… Is the Status Quo Really the Safe Option?

We often treat “staying put” as the prudent choice. A safe harbour during turbulent times. But if the harbour is toxic, unkind, or simply stagnant, it stops being a place of safety…and starts being a place of slow decline. Sometimes the real risk is not moving. Not stretching. Not stepping into something that reminds you who you are and what you can offer.

If a Big Leap Isn’t Possible, Start With a Small Shift

Not everyone can resign tomorrow. Not everyone should. But everyone can make a micro-shift inside their current environment. Here are examples that work — and that I’ve seen transform careers:

• Take on a project in a new functional area

• Add a skill you’ve been quietly curious about

• Volunteer for a cross-divisional initiative

• Shadow a different team for one day a month

• Ask to lead something small but meaningful

• Build a capability you can carry anywhere — coaching, facilitation, analytics, transformation, AI application in your functional area.

These shifts don’t disrupt your life. But they do disrupt the stagnation. And they help you stay confident, expansive, and ready when the path becomes clearer.

The Question I Wish Every Woman Would Ask Herself

Instead of: “Is it risky to change?” Ask: “What is the risk of not changing?” I stayed still for too long, and ended up in a self-imposed box which was very hard to break out of. It seems to me that in a world that’s uncertain, unpredictable and often unkind to women in the messy middle of their careers…staying somewhere that diminishes you is the riskiest thing you can do.

What could that move be for you, even if it’s a small one? How can you keep growing?

Your future self will thank you.