Don’t get too Comfortable This Summer

“What are your plans for the summer?” How many times have you been asked that recently?

Even though most of us are no longer in school and get the summer months off, it seems that summer is a natural time for vacations, slowdowns, and resets. Vacation may or may not be planned, but the answer I hear from most people is “I’m going to get caught up on X this summer.” And that could be your gardening, fitness, inbox, or reading. We plan to “do” things over the summer to get caught up and more in control!

But summer has a funny way of lulling us into a false sense of productivity.

Out-of-office replies go up, calendars get lighter, and suddenly everything feels just a little easier. The pace slows, the pressure lifts, and we start telling ourselves that this is what balance is supposed to feel like.

While that feels fabulous, it can also be dangerous. 

Because while that easy flow feels good in the moment, too much of it can slowly turn into stagnation. I don’t mean overnight or even in a way that you notice right away. What happens is that we wake up in August or September and realize nothing has really changed in months except the calendar.

A study by the American Psychological Association found that people are more likely to stick to habitual routines when external demands decrease, even when those routines are not serving their goals. In other words, when life gets easier, we often stop stretching ourselves, not because we can’t, but because we do not feel like we need to. Comfortable is easy.

I’m 100% guilty. I see it coming, and I still get caught. Just this weekend, I was convinced I was going to prep my gardens on Sunday afternoon. I love gardening and was excited to get in the dirt and dirty. Except it was a little chillier than I like, and I thought that maybe having a nap was a better idea, and … you know where this goes … every other excuse I could think of. This is the summer trap.

The comfort zone is very persuasive, and quite comfortable LOL. I was comfortable doing something other than what I had planned to do. I talked myself out of what was on my schedule by making excuses.

Think about how many people shift into “summer mode” at work. Meetings get rescheduled, executives are on vacation, projects pause until September, and suddenly the urgency disappears. It is not laziness. It is the environment.

When things slow down, our brains naturally conserve energy. We prioritize easy tasks, avoid hard conversations, and defer anything that feels like extra effort. It is efficient and human.

But efficiency is not the same as growth.

July and August can feel like “professional autopilot.” We all still do our jobs exceptionally well, but we often stop doing the things that help us grow: no new tools, no process improvements, no education in webinars or workshops, no networking, no asking for stretch projects. By September, we often feel like the start of a new year, and we get a renewed motivation to tackle the things we’ve avoided. But things get busy again in the fall, and we often are scrambling to keep up, and whatever plans we had for the summer months are now gone.

In careers, comfort often looks like this:

• You stop updating your skills because “things are fine”
• You delay learning new systems because “you can learn in the fall with everyone else”
• You avoid stretch opportunities because “it is a quiet season to clean up other projects”

In health, it looks like:

• Skipping movement because it is hot/cold, or busy, or you are on vacation
• Falling into irregular sleep patterns
• Letting routines slide because summer is “supposed to be relaxing”

In finances, it shows up as:

• More casual spending on takeout, travel, and small treats
• Less attention to budgets because “we will fix it in the fall”

Individually, none of these is alarming. Together, they create a subtle drift. And drift is dangerous because it does not announce itself. It just accumulates.

We have all heard the expression that “growth tends to happen just outside of comfort.” Psychologists often refer to this as the “optimal zone” where challenge is high enough to require effort, but not so high that it creates overwhelm.

When life becomes too comfortable, we leave that zone entirely. Yikes. Read that again. I’ve been guilty, justifying why I do what I do, but that stops today for me!

That does not mean summer should be miserable or that you need to pack every spare moment with self-improvement. It means being intentional about not slipping into full autopilot. We need to have moments of “uncomfortable.” My summer will be relaxing and enjoyable. But I won’t procrastinate on the things I know I need to get done, thinking I’ll have time later (because I know I won’t).

For many of us (me included), this is a great season to quietly do things that your busier months do not allow.

Try thinking in three small categories:

1. One skill stretch
   Pick one thing that would make your job easier or more valuable in the fall. Maybe it is mastering a feature in Microsoft 365, improving your meeting management systems, or finally learning a tool your team keeps mentioning but you have not explored yet.
2. One visibility move
   Reach out to someone in your network. Ask for a virtual coffee. Offer help on a cross-department project. Share an idea you have been sitting on. Visibility does not have to be loud, but it does need to be consistent.
3. One discomfort habit
   Do one thing slightly outside your usual routine each week. Speak up in a meeting where you would normally stay quiet. Suggest a process improvement. Ask a question you have been avoiding.

None of these requires dramatic effort. They just require you to stay engaged while everything around you is relaxing.

Instead of thinking of summer as a pause, think of it as a quieter kind of progress. Not the sprinting, high-pressure kind. The steady, intentional kind that builds quietly in the background while others are coasting.

Because when September arrives, the people who feel most confident are rarely the ones who completely checked out for the summer. They are the ones who used the slower season to quietly get better.

Comfort is not the enemy. Staying there too long is. So, enjoy the summer. Take the time off. Rest when you can. Just do not disappear into ease so completely that you have to start over when the pace picks up again.

The gardening project that I avoided this weekend will be done in the next seven days. I saw the pattern I was slipping into and wrote this article to ensure I didn’t do it this summer. I’ve got lots of excuses for my gardening, writing, organization, and the multiple projects I’ve got on the go. I’m not letting them make me too comfortable in the easy times. 

Growth does not need pressure all the time, but it does need attention. I’m still growing, and I’ll be growing all summer long. I hope you will, too!