Have you ever felt like your life been stuck in tedious routines? Perhaps, you also feel like you lacked opportunities. Otherwise, you may feel like you are going too slowly at your life pace.
Do you know the reason behind it? Yep, you might get stuck in your comfort zone.
According to Cambridge’s Online Dictionary, the comfort zone is a situation in which you feel comfortable and you do not have to do anything new or difficult.
Comfort zones, in fact, are more about fear than comfort.
It can be a fear of uncertainties, disappointments, failures, or new challenges.
You will miss out on career opportunities, new life experiences, and personal growth if you limit yourself to what you already know. Break the chains of the fears to spice up your life. Once you do, you will discover the pleasure of taking chances and risks. We can evolve primarily through our willingness to take chances and risks by going outside of our comfort zones.
Want to break free from your safe chrysalis but aren’t sure where to start? Here are 13 tips about how to get out of your comfort zone and open yourself up to new doors!
1. Recognize Things Beyond Your Comfort Zone
What are the things you think are beneficial but are reluctant to do because of the risk of failures or disappointments? Draw a circle and write your comfort list inside the circle and your fears outside of it. This method will help you to clearly recognize both your comforts and discomforts.
2. Identify Things You Want to Overcome
Pay attention to the list of discomforts and dig deeper. The fears or anxieties are the primary emotions you are trying to conquer out of your comfort zone. How do the fears and anxieties occur depending on the situation? Be as specific as possible.
Do you have a fear of approaching strangers and presenting yourself in social interactions? What is the reason? Are you insecure about your voice? Are you insecure about your appearance? Are you afraid of being disregarded?
Do you want to change your career path but afraid of the uncertainties in the new job? Why? Are you afraid to start from scratch in a new workplace? Are you scared that your current skills may not fit in your new career path?
Look closely into yourself and be honest about your fears.
3. Determine Benefit of Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
What would your career and personal development be like if you will engage in public speaking? What will you get if you brave enough to change your career path? Keep the advantages in mind as an encouragement to overcome your fears.
4. Take the first step
All you have to do to get out of your comfort zone is absolutely take the first step. It can be challenging or even daunting. For example, the first day at the gym is often the most difficult. However, as you build momentum, it becomes easier to keep going further.
5. Take Tiny Steps
Don’t enforce yourself to jump outside of your comfort zone. You will quickly get exhausted and withdraw yourself. Take a tiny step at a time to deal with your fears or anxieties. For example, if you want to do public speaking, begin by speaking to small numbers of people whenever possible. You can also do it with your family and close friends.
6. Get Comfortable with Discomfort
Broadening your comfort zone is one way to get outside of it. Make efforts to avoid running away from unpleasant situations.
Let’s deal with the facts of meeting people in social circumstances. If you start to feel nervous while talking to someone you’ve just met, try to stay a little longer than you usually would before returning to your comfort zone. It will become less uncomfortable if you survive long enough and practice quite often.
7. Don’t Go For Safe Options
Any time you make a decision, one option is safe and the other option is risky. The risky option tends to be the one that will teach you the most and encourage you to develop the most, so go for it.
8. Keep in Mind that Failure is Best Teacher
Fear of failure is one of the main reasons that trapped us in our comfort zone. Many of us are scared of failure so much that we would rather do nothing than pursue our dreams. Let’s start thinking about failure as a teacher.
What did you learn from old mistakes and failures? How do you apply what you’ve learned in those failures to your next journey to improve your chances of achieving success?
Many of the world’s most influential and successful people struggled countless times before finally succeeding.
9. Think of Different Perspectives
Encircle yourself with intelligent people who disagree with you on a multitude of topics. Make a point of debating ideas with them in a respectful manner, since this will enable you to reconsider your values, beliefs, or opinions.
10. Be Brave to Say Yes More Often
One of the best ways to get out of your comfort zone is to say yes more often, even if you don’t think you are ready. Say yes to new tasks, responsibilities, and roles, even if you’ve never done them before. It provides you with a plethora of job options. Who knows, you could discover something you have never had the opportunity to try before.
11. Volunteer in Unfamiliar or Unexperienced Events
Get out of the comfort zone by encouraging yourself to volunteer in events, campaigns or, social acts. Make it a learning experience. Choose something you don’t know anything about and learn all you can while still allowing yourself to be useful for others.
12. Do What You Are Afraid Of
A new mentality is necessary. Is there any action that scares you? Then you should definitely do it. That is how you overcome fear. The fear might never go away, but all you have to do is learn to ride it.
13. Remember That Tomorrow is A New Day
It’s important to remember that what doesn’t kill you usually makes you stronger! Be daring to step out of your comfort zone. You will survive, you will improve, you will learn something, and you will have a higher success rate the next time.
Start To Get Out of Your Comfort Zone Now!
So, that is all the thirteen steps for breaking out of your comfort zone. Bear in mind that it is not an easy process. It’s also something you may not be able to complete in one moment, so it’s a good idea to practice it one at a time and regularly.
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