Many people give up on their dreams before they even have a chance to get started.
Let’s begin by better understanding this thing called the comfort zone. What is it?
Psychologists define it as a behavioral space where your activities and behaviors fit a routine and pattern that minimizes stress and risk, thus providing a state of mental security.
Going back to 1908, psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson found that people perform best when their stress levels are a bit elevated. This is a state they named as ‘optimal anxiety’ which lies just beyond one’s comfort zone. Research shows that living in our comfort zone creates a steady level of performance. If we want to maximize performance, we need to shift into ‘optimal anxiety ‘by pushing our stress levels slightly higher than normal. Too much stress shuts down productivity and performance.
So, the next question is “Should I stay, or should I go?” While staying in your comfort zone is a healthy way to manage stress it can also be limiting. You and life can become stagnant and feel confined. It can even feel lazy or unproductive. The answer is definitely GO! Break out of your comfort zone periodically. Practice and see how it feels and what you discover afterwards.
Let’s spend a little time on why we are all different when it comes to breaking through our comfort zone. Why is it that some of us are ready to push the limit, almost fearless where others have so much apprehension and fear that they stress themselves out?
Here is a quick way to check your risk tolerance. What rating would you give yourself?
Rate yourself: Risk Behavior
Scale: Highly Adverse 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highly tolerant (Circle your #)
Our disposition to risk tolerance is a major factor on whether we go forward or stay comfy in our safety net. Rewards require risk. Success requires moving outside your comfort zone by trying new things, some work while others might not. Either way it creates a growth experience and that forward movement takes you closer to your desires and dreams.
Here are the 4 Surefire Reasons to Break Outside of Your Comfort Zone!
- Discover your true self by taking risks!
When we take risks, we learn more about ourselves. With our surrender to forge ahead, we discover what lies within, what makes us tick, and even deeper how strong we are, our risk tolerance, and how we perceive fear based on our past experiences. This inward view is where our power and our wisdom reside and it’s where we work on building the mindset muscles to lead us step by step closer to our desires.
- Learning takes place outside the comfort zone.
When we are inside the comfort zone, we feel safe and we develop routines that sometimes lead to laziness and boredom. While it’s great for a while, overtime it can feel stagnant and confining and it doesn’t let us try new things or explore and discover. Trying something new fires the brain and it expands.
We don’t know what we don’t know, so once we try something we don’t know, then and only then can we know. Test it out. Try something new. Like a new food, or a new dance move. How did it feel? Were you engaged? The brain science tells us that when we engage in activity that is positively stimulating, dopamine is released into the prefrontal cortex, causing a number of reactions that make us feel great! Who wants to feel great? Me!
- You may delay your goals, desires and impact.
I invite you to think about a time when you were faced with a difficult situation in your life, and instead of facing it head on and overcoming it, you take a step back into your comfort zone. Now close your eyes and think about that difficult situation again and how you didn’t confront it, you didn’t’ question it, you didn’t explore other options to make it better. This is a major red flag, especially when it comes to your goals in life and not being able to achieve them. Your life goals are important to reaching your true potential!
When difficulties come up—and they will—you need to be brave enough to keep moving forward. It’s easy to just jump back into your routine yet postponing your goals now could make them more difficult to achieve later. Find the courage to push through the hard things, you’ll be glad you did.
Life is so much more fulfilling when you are constantly learning, growing, connecting, and making strides in the world by releasing your greatness. When you stay in your comfort zone, all of that disappears. You become lost in the crowd, another bee in the hive serving everyone but yourself.
- You may lose what makes you unique.
Without the push to try new things you don’t really know what you are really made of or even capable of being. Similar to a race car, you are designed to perform at particular level, unique to the gifts and talents within. Staying in your comfort zone keeps you from stretching and uncovering these gifts and talents. Consider where you are today? Who you are and your capabilities? Consider who you are at the end of this year? You have spread your wings in an area that was a stretch and expanded your capabilities. What were those expanded capabilities? What did you learn along the way? Who did you meet along the way? How beneficial was this new thing you did? Now I encourage you to go do it, as we are constantly unearthing our uniqueness in the doing.
I never knew I had a uniqueness for fine wines until one day at a wine tasting I knew enough to ask questions to some important wine aficionados and was politely told “it’s because you have a sophisticated palette.” Let me tell you that I do enjoy good wine and I always engage in a taste test before I indulge at a restaurant. I should like what I’m about to pay for, right? I do like surprises when I’m able to give the sommelier a few names of wines I prefer. That’s what I will call a fine-tuned surprise. You may not like wines, yet I hope you can see the playfulness that this story brings to life. The curiosity, the connectedness of people and things. My love for wines started over 15 years ago through local tastings and outings with friends. I love the people I meet, and we have this “like me” attitude that brings us all together. Life is much more fulfilling when one is learning, growing, connecting and making their mark in and with the world!
- You will discover your new dreams.
The unknown is a magical place where dreams come true and life happens. Your comfort zone is a predictable place where dreams die and life stalls. It’s pretty simple when you think about it. Stay within your comfort zone and keep hoping, wishing, and dreaming of a better life, or take a step into the unknown and create your own version of how you want your life to look.
Once you move away from what you already know, your mind has a chance to look at all the possibilities waiting for it, and you’ll be free to pick and choose your new dreams. This may mean temporary discomfort as you leave an unfulfilling job, relationship, or city, but out of that discomfort will grow new opportunities where you can build your dreams.
My wish for you, may you continually evolve and build a life beyond that of which you can imagine.
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