Stress is a much discussed topic in today's world.  Everyone has stress, talks about it, seeks help with it and constantly looks for ways around or out of it.

In the real world, stress is actually a physical phenomenon.  Engineers test bridges for how much stress they can endure.  Buildings are designed to withstand the stress of high winds or earthquakes.  In almost all cases of physical stress, designed flexibility is the solution.

When is person is stressed, particularly a new threat or challenge, he or she often defaults to the familiar.  They seek comfort in activities that are either routine or repetitive.  For example, a person may seek comfort in television, food or alcohol.

The term comfort zone comes from a familiar routine.  When the person is challenged from outside influences, there is a tendency to seek ways back to the comfort zone.

This can be seen in the business world.  A tremendous sales person is promoted to a sales management position.  All of a sudden, the person cannot perform the comfortable sales routine and must transition to meetings, coaching and supervising.  Often times, this person may seek to revert to their comfort zone by going on sales calls with subordinates and sometimes even taking over the sales call to the detriment of the sales person.

This has been explored in the Peter Principle which holds that businesses often promote people to their level of incompetence.

What is a strategy to defuse this situation?  One technique used in some types of therapy is to add a cushion of time between the stressful event and the reaction to it.  That cushion can be used to use rational thought to seek other more measured responses.  It may help a person to avoid an autonomic response and creatively see and solve the problem.