“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Only when you stop letting fears and anxiety hold you back, will you start to make those major breakthroughs in life.
A person’s “comfort zone” is called that for a reason: It’s comfortable and safe. However, your comfort zone can also be a place of stagnation — one that keeps you from seizing opportunities for growth, just because it involves something unfamiliar.
When in your comfort zone, your brain doesn’t want anything to change. … Getting out of your comfort zone from time to time creates just enough good stress to ramp up your focus, creativity, pace, and drive, and it helps you respond to life stress when unexpected things happen.
It’s really easy to fall into the trap of never pushing your comfort zone. The problem with this is it often prevents you from true success and happiness in life. That’s because one of the best ways to grow is to test the limits of what most people consider “normal” to live the life you want.
Here are some ways to break out your comfort zone without going too far:
- Do everyday things differently. Take a different route to work. …
- Take your time making decisions. …
- Trust yourself and make snap decisions. …
- Do it in small steps.
Step #1 – Get Information
Anxiety usually comes from a fear of the unknown. Usually we imagine the worst-case scenario of what could happen when we push past the boundaries of what makes us feel safe.
To break through your comfort zone, you need to first educate yourself. Your goal here is to find out about whatever skill or activity you’re pursuing. You’ll talk to people who have done the same thing. You’ll read books on the subject.
Step #2 – Have a Plan
After educating yourself, you want to create a plan of action for pushing the boundaries on what you think is possible.
With this step you’re going to write down a step-by-step blueprint for how you’re going to get out of your comfort zone. You start with the easiest thing to do. Then you create a plan to get to each level.
Step #3 – Hold Yourself Accountable
Accountability is another key to breaking through your comfort zone. You want to tell your friends and family about what you’re trying to do. Or you can even find an accountability partner or form a mastermind group.
This is an important step because the people in your life will keep you on track. You want them to give you that ‘push’ as you’re pushing your boundaries. They will make it hard for you to quit because you know you’ll look foolish if you did.
Step #4 – Take Baby Steps
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. ~ Lao Tzu
Breaking out of your comfort zone starts with the first step. Once you have a plan in place you’ll simply start with that crucial initial action.
Taking ‘baby steps’ is a great way to de-sensitize yourself to the feelings of anxiety. You’re not trying to become an overnight success. Instead you’re steadily pushing the boundaries of your comfort levels and working towards an overall goal.
Step #5 – Aggressively Challenge Your Comfort Zone
To really blast through your comfort zone, you would do what I call an “aggressive challenge.” This is a rapid-fire approach where do a lot of something that makes you scared. The idea here is you’re shocking the system into becoming comfortable.
You won’t have time to think about your fear. Instead you’ll be so busy pushing your boundaries that you forget about what used to make you scared.
Step #6 – Remain Positive
There will be times when you experience a negative outcome. Something that shakes your confidence and makes you feel scared. The trick is to not let anything prevent you from blasting past the point of comfort. Recognize that you will have negative outcomes. It’s a natural part of the process.
Don’t allow negativity to creep into your mind. Remind yourself that it’s going to happen. In fact, you should recognize that you’re actually being given feedback about how you can do something better.
Step #7 – Keep Expanding Your Comfort Zone
Never stop expanding your comfort zone. Even if you arrive at your stated goal it’s important to keep pushing those boundaries.
Look for new challenges. Find stuff that you would never imagine you would do. Like teaching a class on the subject that once filled you fear. Or you could work on a related skill.
