The comfort zone. What a beautiful place to be in. But have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone? Have you ever thought of venturing outside to see what lies in the great beyond? Have you ever wondered what lessons about life you can learn outside your comfort zone? One thing’s for sure: you’ll be surprised by what you find at the edge of your comfort zone.
“Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die.” – Stan Dale
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with staying in your comfort zone. Most people spend their entire lives existing right in the middle of their comfort zone. But that’s the thing. They just EXIST. They never live. They never find out what it feels like to live a life beyond the mediocrity of the daily grind. The comfort zone quite comfortably kills your potential to achieve greatness and live an amazing life.
Venturing outside your comfort zone is exceptionally challenging but it’s exactly where you will grow mentally, psychologically, and spiritually. This is what will empower you to create an extraordinary life for yourself.
But What Exactly Is A Comfort Zone?
“Comfort is the enemy of progress.” – P.T. Barnum
It’s a metaphorical place where life feels comfortable. It’s a place where everything seems familiar to you. Comfort Zone is a place where you never learn any valuable lessons about life. It’s a place where there are no challenges or obstacles. Or at least the challenges seem familiar to you. You know how to overcome them. It’s a place where you know you’ll be okay and you’re happy with what you have.
As I said before, there is nothing wrong with that. All of us want to feel comfortable in life. No one wants to struggle their entire life. Comfortable makes us feel good. Comfortable makes us happy. We feel great being comfortable in our lives. Then why would anyone want to move out of it? The thing is, life happens. {1}
Life takes some drastic twists and turns when you least expect it. Life hits hard. And you will fall flat on your face wondering what the hell just happened? And this is where the problem lies. Staying in the comfort zone makes you complacent. It makes you mentally weak. It takes away the warrior spirit from you. So when you fall down, you don’t have the willpower or the mental strength to get back up.
Related: 10 Uncomfortable Milestones That Prove You’re Doing It Right (Even When It Doesn’t Feel Like It)
Welcome To The ‘Uncomfort’ Zone
“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” – Denis Waitley
Did you know there is a word for the death of self-development? It’s spelled C.O.M.F.O.R.T. By purposely getting out of your comfort zone, you force yourself to face challenges you’ve never faced before, you learn skills that you never thought you were capable of doing. You reach new heights that you never thought existed. You become a whole new person that you never knew was trapped inside.
Stepping out of your comfort zone prepares you to face life and stand tall regardless of what challenges life throws at you.
The “uncomfort” zone is where you grow as a person. It’s where you experience how exciting and enthralling life can be. This is where you experience the true essence of life. Where nothing feels familiar, yet everything seems exciting, this is the place you were meant to be in. This is where you were meant to live, not just exist. One 2001 study explains that successful leaders step out of their comfort zones and “use their passion, values, and personal mission to create and maintain influence.” We must learn to “define and develop” environments that allow us to grow. {2}
Here Are Some Life Lessons You Can Learn Outside Your Comfort Zone.
“The only thing that is stopping you from where you are to where you want to go is your comfort zone.” – Dhaval Gaudier
Are you planning to take a small step out of your own comfort zone? Do you find to find out what greatness awaits you in the realms of the unknown? Well, here are a few lessons about life that you will learn outside your comfort zone which will help you realize it’s the best decision of your life.
1. Change is great.
Most of us hate change. We like things the way they are once we start getting used to them. I would go so far as to say that most of us fear change. But instead of fearing change, what you should be fearing is getting stuck in the same place. You should fear not being able to change. Not being able to grow.
Change is how we grow in life. Change forces us to do and achieve things we wouldn’t have otherwise. Doing the same thing over and over again, day after day will not lead to any growth. Surprisingly, most people still choose to live this way. Simply because it feels comfortable. Because they detest change.
Stepping out of your comfort zone is how we grow. The uncomfort zone is exactly where all your personal growth resides.
2. Challenge equals a mental workout.
Just like your body, your brain and your heart is a muscle too. And just like you go to the gym to challenge and grow your biceps, you need to challenge yourself to build your mental muscles. And this challenge lies on the other side of your comfort zone. The thing is, comfort zones are meant to be pushed, jumped across, and left behind to give our mind, heart, and soul a much-needed workout.
Challenges make us question ourselves and our abilities. These questions lead to higher levels of self-awareness that allow us to look beyond our self-imposed limitations and restrictions. The more you challenge yourself, the thinner the walls of those boundaries will get. And the thicker your mental strength will become. So start running from one challenge to another.
Related: 10 Reasons To Embrace Change For Personal Growth
3. Pushing yourself helps you grow.
“Your comfort zone is not a place that you want to remain in. Dare, discover, be all that you can be.” – Catherine Pulsifer
There are certain things we can and can’t do. All of us have limits and strengths. However, there are certain limiting beliefs that we possess which prevent us from going beyond what we think we can do and expanding our potential to a great extent.
Leaving your comfort zone and going into the great unknown will help you push those mental, and even some physical limits so that you can create some space for your personal development. What appeared impossible just some time ago will become one of your greatest achievements. What seemed like a dreaded challenge earlier will become an intrinsic part of your everyday life. The fact is, outside your comfort zone lies the learning zone. {3}
4. Happiness cannot be found in complacency.
Contrary to popular belief, you cannot find happiness inside your comfort zone. You may confuse comfort with happiness, but you won’t experience true happiness unless you overcome certain obstacles and achieve something you never thought you could. The comfort zone is where your dreams die. And that’s not where happiness lives.
Being happy requires you to engage with life. It requires you to cover grounds that are still unexplored. You need to see and experience things that you haven’t seen or experienced yet. As long as you believe you are happy with life, you won’t know what true happiness is.
5. You are better than you think you are.
Being in the comfort zone for too long makes you impose different limiting beliefs on yourself. Your self-imposed limitations keep you from pursuing your dreams and you become bitter and frustrated. As a result, instead of working on yourself, you start blaming others for not respecting you and appreciating you enough. Why? Because that’s easier and more comfortable than pointing out your own faults.
Taking a single step into the uncomfort zone will make you smash all your limiting beliefs and take the right steps towards your goals. This will immediately allow you to realize that people think you are braver, smarter, hard-working, and much more capable than what you think about yourself.
6. Life is a beautiful journey.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
The thing is, the view outside your comfort zone is stunning. The moment you step outside is the exact moment you realize how vibrant, wonderful and sparkling life is. Of course, there will still be things that you will dislike. But as you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, you will start looking at the brighter side of life which was covered earlier by the haze of your comfort zone.
Now as you step out, you can see how beautiful the world is and it expands for you in whole new ways. The more you engage, the better it will get. As your old perspectives and preconceived notions about life melt away, you will experience a whole new world that exists right outside. All you need to do is take one small step at a time.
Related: 21 Things That Change When You Start Respecting Yourself
Smash Those Walls And Step Outside
“Whenever you feel uncomfortable, instead of retreating back into your old comfort zone, pat yourself on the back and say, “I must be growing,” and continue moving forward.” – T. Harv Eker
Get out of the self-imposed prison that you’ve forced yourself into with your limiting beliefs that subconsciously sabotage your personal development. Fear is only a figment of our imagination. But the consequences of avoiding change & challenges and refusing lessons about life to move ahead are very real. Unless you want to stay in the same place for the rest of your life, dig deep inside and find the power to break those damn walls that hold you inside your so-called ‘comfort’ zone.
Once you get over your fears and step into the unknown, you will never want to get back to what feels comfortable ever again. As you experience how mentally strong you are, as you realize your true potential, you will embark on a truly amazing and crazy adventure that will lead you to the life you always dreamt of.
Go now. Get out there and live!
References: 1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11985161/ 2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15129539/ 3. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2012.04260.x 3.
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