Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Stepping outside your comfort zone can be healthy, illuminating, and invigorating.
Intuitively we all know it’s important to try something new, to step out of our comfort zone. So why don’t we do it more often? Why do we need to be pushed, prodded, and poked?
Is it complacency? Laziness? More often than not, I think it’s fear. Fear of failure. Fear of change. Fear of looking stupid. Fear of what other people might say.
You know what I’m talking about. Everyone has at least one blog post on stretching our limits, leaving our comfort zone, and overcoming fear. Why? Because we need to be reminded and encouraged to do it. A lot. Otherwise, most of us would remain in our ruts, lamenting our boring lives, and not doing anything to change them.
But when we do take up the challenge of something new, we’re almost always pleasantly surprised. It might be uncomfortable at first; it might be hard. Or embarrassing. But if we push through the awkwardness and fear, we find we’ve learned something. When all is said and done, we’ve:
• grown stronger
• gained confidence
• acquired a new skill
• obtained wisdom
• renewed our energy to tackle more difficult projects
• achieved a fresh perspective
• redefined our ambitions
• picked up new ideas
• become more aware of the world around us
Just to name a few worthy characteristics and qualities. So, yeah, I’m telling you something you already know. Because you need to be reminded to take action. If it’s been awhile since you’ve tried something new, give it a whirl and see what happens. It might be the change you (and maybe the world) have been looking for.
What other benefits/reasons can you think of for stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something new?
