Understanding the comfort zone

The Yerkes–Dodson Law (1907) linked anxiety to performance. In response to anxiety-provoking stimuli, the options are either fight (meet the challenge), flight (run away/hide), or freeze (become paralyzed).

When we have too little stimuli, we remain in our comfort zone, where there isn't much incentive to reach new heights of performance. When exposed to too many stimuli, we enter a 'panic zone', where we run away/hide or become paralyzed. Just enough puts us in the Goldilocks zone.