Your comfort zone is costing you!
HOTA, Home of the Arts, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
Last week, I travelled solo to Queensland (an Australian state) for the first time.
While this may not seem like a big deal for many, it was for me. As I was born and raised in a different culture, solo travelling was never encouraged or even considered, so being entirely on my own was quite daunting and exciting.
Not only was this my first time travelling alone, but it was also my first time renting a car. While I like driving, driving alone for long distances has always been intimidating. The fear of something terribly going wrong is always lurking in the background. This time, even though I was all kinds of afraid, I didn't let it hold me back.
My entire trip was for eight days and was a wonderful experience. I learned to navigate through challenges and overcome the difficulties that came my way. I drove up a mountain on steep, winding roads, explored a rainforest, rode a rollercoaster, walked alongside beaches, and enjoyed a cup of coffee at a rooftop bar as I watched the sunset over the mountains.
This was way outside my comfort zone, but I did it anyway. This experience taught me that there is so much in life that I haven't yet experienced and would have missed out on this amazing experience had I not pushed myself outside my comfort zone and taken the risk. Things I once thought were scary or impossible to do now felt normal.
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." - Neale Donald Walsch
Trust me when I say this: no matter how overwhelming, daunting, and intimidating things may seem right now, the discomfort slowly dissipates away once you take the first step outside your comfort zone. If you continue repeating it, it will soon become second nature. And what you once thought impossible will become easy.
Your comfort zone is the space where you feel safe and in control because you're familiar with it and know what to expect. But your comfort zone is costing you.
Here are five reasons why:
You're not growing. Learning and growth take place outside of your comfort zone.
You're playing small. You have so much potential in you waiting to be explored, but you'll never know it while staying inside your comfort zone.
You're not building evidence of what you can achieve. You're as limited as your beliefs, perceptions, and experiences.
You're feeding your fears and doubts. The more you succumb to your fears, the stronger they'll get.
The longer you spend in your comfort zone, the harder it gets to leave it.
To go from where you are to where you want to be, your comfort zone is the only thing holding you back.
So, how can you overcome your fear and step outside your comfort zone?
1. Acknowledge and accept your fear
The first step is to become aware of your fear. Acknowledge its presence and allow yourself to feel it. Then ask yourself, what is it telling you? Where is it coming from?
In my case, it told me everything that could go wrong with renting a car while being entirely on my own.
Why?
Because I had no experience doing it before.
2. Check the evidence
Is your fear warranted? Is it reasonable or justified?
Either you have a weak evidence statement, or you have none. Either way, you need new or more evidence to overwrite the old ones.
Therefore, I went ahead and rented a car.
3. Let your fear be your guide
Don't let fear hold you back; use it as a guide.
Whatever you are most afraid of is what you need to do more of. The things that scare you the most are the things that mean the most to you.
4. Create new evidence
We don't see the world as it is; we see the world as we are. Based on our unique set of thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions, i.e., our frame of reference. We measure and compare everything to our frame of reference.
When you try new, unfamiliar things, you create evidence of your ability to do what you once thought impossible. It strengthens your self-confidence and empowers you to repeat that activity or behaviour, eventually leading you to become the best version of yourself.
Remember, no matter how difficult or impossible something seems; there is always a solution.
Take small steps if you must. Every step forward is progress.
Muster up the courage to endure the fear and leave your comfort zone. Once you do, you'll never be the same again (in a positive way) because, as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr said, "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” - Abraham Maslow
When was the last time you did something that scared you?
In the next week, take one step towards something you're afraid of, no matter how small.