It may be nice and cosy and somewhere you feel comfortable, but if you want to grow and develop, you need to be stepping out of your comfort zone.
People often start the new year with a list of goals and aspirations on wanting to improve themselves, their relationships, work, money and lives. No matter what the goal is – it will, without a doubt result in a step from the cosy comfort zone into a little bit of the unknown.
And, this is good! We never learn or grow by standing still. If we sit in our comfortable place of being, plodding along and never pushing ourselves, how can we expect to go anywhere along our path to achievement.
You see, if you take little steps to consistently push yourself out of your comfort zone, what do you think happens to those feelings of discomfort? They gradually become easier and more comfortable to be in.
Then what happens to your comfort zone?
It has become bigger and has grown with you – as you have developed and gained knowledge, experience, confidence – so has your comfort zone.
So do you stay there? In your new zone of being nice and cosy? No! You carry on stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing yourself that little bit further.
Change begins at the end of your comfort zone…
Strategies for stepping out your comfort zone
- Be consistent with your efforts. The key is to repeat each little step time and time again so that it becomes a new habit. The more repetition you have, the more you are training your mind to to not feel fear or discomfort.
- Eliminate fear. What’s the worst that can happen? When thinking about stepping out of your comfort zone, ask yourself what you are afraid of; it is usually fear of rejection, failure or criticism that we fear the most in work situations. If you identify the fear and what the worst is that can happen, you will realise that there’s no danger and that whatever it may be – you will handle it.
- Be prepared. The more you can prepare yourself, the less daunting stepping out of your comfort zone will feel. For example, if attending networking events is a lead generation strategy for you but you have a fear of talking to new people, prepare by doing your research on who is attending, the location, layout and what you want to talk about. The more you are prepared, the fewer surprises and the more confident you will feel.
Remember, we will never grow by being comfortable!
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