Your comfort zone is a dangerous place. It prevents you from improving, it stops you from achieving all the things you are capable of achieving, and it makes you miserable.
Are you fed up, and can’t stand the way things are anymore? Do you have this constant feeling that you can be better, happier, stronger? Have you had enough of telling yourself and others you are ‘fine’? Feel like you are living a life you didn’t choose? You know there is more to life, and want to find out what that looks like? Then it’s time to step out of your comfort zone.
Remember: “Nothing changes, if nothing changes”.
This may sound weird, but I know many of you will ‘get it’ when I say survival mode was my comfort zone. I needed the stress, chaos, and unpredictability of each day. It was one crisis after another. It was exhausting, but I kind of enjoyed that too. The drama gave me a buzz. It kept me ‘busy’, distracted from the difficult emotions I did not want to feel. It made me feel as if I was coping and had the situation under control. How wrong I was! I had become comfortable with the uncomfortable.
We often develop coping mechanisms to avoid difficult emotions. None of us escape life’s challenges, yet so many of us cope in unhealthy ways to avoid the uncomfortable feelings. We overexercise, overeat, overspend, overwork, overdrink, overexplain, and overthink. We suffer chronic stress and anxiety, impacting both our physical and mental health. It all becomes a vicious circle, and the tragedy is we lose ourselves.
There are people, just like you and me, who have changed their lives because that desire to be better than the person they were was just too strong to ignore and they walked out of their comfort zones. They ignored the naysayers and their so-called friends who criticised them because of their own inability to step outside their comfort zones.
WARNING: This won’t feel good at the beginning. But what is the alternative? If you continue with your self-destructive, unhappy lifestyle what will the end game be? One thing is for sure, it won’t be very pleasant.
Change doesn’t always bring about good feelings at the beginning. It brings a period of transition, which is hard. It can make us feel overwhelmed, lost, out of sorts and craving certainty. BUT HARD IS GOOD. It means you are changing. We must stop resisting change to stay comfortable. Change is uncomfortable, but so is staying the same. Even when we feel stuck, self-doubt, self-loathing, and negative self-talk can still feel more comfortable than facing change.
You can do this. This is how you start to step out of your comfort zone.
You make a decision today to change something in your life that you are unhappy with. For example, you feel the pounds are piling on, you can’t seem to find a routine and make it to the gym, you feel shit, and each day feels worse. Put on your trainers. Find a slot in your diary, and make a promise to yourself that you will go for a walk/run and just do it! No more excuses, because the only person you are letting down is you. Stepping out of your comfort zone means changing your daily habits, routines, and the way you treat yourself day-to-day. It means taking risks. It means doing things differently and knowing that in doing so, you will step towards the change you are looking for. There are so many ways you can change and improve your life, all you have to do is accept your current habits and routines are not working for you, and change them.
Many people at this point will tell you to write a gratitude list! I am here to tell you that if you want things to change, you need to do it differently. Holding ourselves responsible is critical. After all it is our fault if we are not doing what we say we will. I was just as guilty of this. I changed my life around, not by focussing on gratitude lists, but my making myself see in black and white the habits that were keeping me back from getting to where I wanted to be. Who I wanted to be.
Write a naughty list. Be honest about ALL your bad habits. Now focus on the one you really want to change first. Jot down what you can do to change it. Examples below:
Eating too much sugar.
Keep a food diary for a week. Write it ALL down (no cheating) even the Haribo’s and custard creams.
Not making it to the gym.
I paid myself each time I went (no joke) – £2 in a pot. A month later I booked a massage.
Not drinking enough water.
Keep a diary & make a note of every glass of water.
Drinking too much.
Go to the cinema or join a walking group. Do something different, away from bars, pubs & nights out.
Isolating
Find a hobby – barre, ballet, skydiving – you choose. Meeting new people will help you step out of your comfort zone and see life in a new way.
No matter where you are today, you have the power to change the direction your life is going in. All it takes is one decision to move away from what is holding you back and start taking action towards a life you deserve and the life you can build for yourself. It really is your choice.
Travel provides the opportunity to step outside of one’s comfort zone, try new things and explore new aspects of oneself.
A OnePoll survey by SLH:
64% of people agreed that travel is one of the top-ranking things that helped them step out of their comfort zone.
40% feel energised.
37% rejuvenated.
34% inspired.
“Sometimes we have to travel to unknown places to find things we didn’t know we’d lost, and to repair parts of us we didn’t know were broken”. Holly Renee Miller
Visiting an entirely new destination, and meeting new people is a great way to help us step out of our comfort zone. You could also choose to go on a life-changing Retreat and join us at Beyond in a transformative location like Cape Town. Immersing ourselves in different cultures, landscapes, and perspectives offers an invaluable gift – a fresh lens through which to see the world.
Join us at Beyond for a life changing experience, that will change the way you look at everything.
The great thing about deciding to walk out of your comfort zone is it shows you that anything is possible. Our purpose is to encourage you to live the life you desire.
