Get Out of Your Comfort Zone (Your Success Depends on it)
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted is One Step Outside Your Comfort Zone.
“Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills!” — T. Harv Eker
It’s about time you stepped outside your safe zone. You have hesitated for far too long. The reward (and the lessons learned) will be, without question, worth the risk. You may be doing what everyone does–conforming to norms and and everyday pressure around you but that’s not where you need to be.
No one likes to move beyond his or her comfort zone, but that’s really where the magic happens. It’s where you can grow, learn, and develop in a way that expands your horizon beyond your wildest dream.
Living life uncomfortably is the only way to live. It’s being uncomfortable that makes you better. It’s being uncomfortable that reminds you you’re not where you want to be. It’s your road map for finding the finish line.
Everything remarkable happens beyond the safe zone. By pushing yourself into new areas you will have a chance to authentically define who you are, and break free of the limitations of what others think you should be.
When you try and fail and things get a little embarrassing that’s when you know you’re pushing the limits. You’re pushing back against mediocrity.
Growth outside your comfort zone can mean confidence in other areas of your life
One of the greatest benefits of stepping out of your comfort zones in areas like speaking at events or stepping up your exercise routine is that growth or progress in your current endeavour can give you a massive amount of confidence in almost every other area of your life. This is a good reason why you should have many areas where you stretch yourself.
“Your comfort zone keeps you in a very predictable space” — Marla Tabaka
You usually know exactly what’s going to happen in your safe zone. The fear of the unknown will keep you stuck for as long as you stay there. Everything is unknown. You never know what could disrupt your schedule tomorrow. But you know exactly what you plan on doing.
So the trick here is to let go of your expectations and accept the results of your actions. Take risks in measured amounts if you fear life outside circle of comfort.
If you are rolling out a new product, do it in small bits. Don’t go gangbusters and risk losing it all. Gamble with something you are willing to lose. These losses will teach you something, such as how to make the product better or market it differently. Look forward to the outcome, whatever it is. Celebrate small wins and move on to the next step. Keep yourself mottivated.
Too many of us are still playing it safe in our choices everyday.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten
That’s a quote you should always think about when change and risk taking seem like a long shot to take. Nobody said it would be easy to start a new project, start and maintain a new habit or even stop that habit you have been thinking about for the past six months. But the ugly truth is that if you don’t do something sigificant about it, you not be able to change at all.
Whatever profession you find yourself, there are somethings you just can’t think about changing, but if you expect a different and even better results, it’s about time you did something different.
The results of a step outside your comfort zone could change your outlook on other challenges you may be considering or other ideas you want to try for your business.
Here is what Richard Branson has to say about taking risks and challenging yourself:
“At Virgin, I use two techniques to free our team from the same old routine: breaking records and making bets. Taking chances is a great way to test myself and our group, and also to push boundaries while having fun together. One of the great benefits of taking on challenges in your working life is that you and your team learn to confront risk together..”
Risk teaches you more about yourself
The more comfortable you are with exploring new abilities within yourself, the more aware you will become of just what you are capable of. You never know until you try.
Get out of your comfort zone, your success or breakthrough probably depends on it. If you do better outside your safe zone, you will most likely start thinking about how you can do it more often.
If it turns out bad, you would have learnt one more way that doesn’t work. Either way, it’s never a bad idea to do something that scares you a little bit; it’s taking that chance and seeing the outcome that may surprise you.