FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

“The comfort zone is a region where great dreams go to get murdered, buried and forgotten.

Michael Bassey Johnson

No one likes to live in mediocrity. However, that’s what many people choose because rising above mediocrity requires bold decisions few are ready to make. The path to becoming extraordinary is a courageous one – you have to decide whether you choose it or not.

This path requires courage and boldness because it challenges you to break barriers, makes you question your identity, and pushes you to meet your fears and insecurities face-to-face. It may exhaust you. Sometimes, you may feel that you are lost. It may even push you to the verge of giving up on everything. This path can be rough.

The thought most people will have right now is, “No wonder why people don’t choose this path! It is so treacherous, wild, and difficult.”

Well, that’s the whole point of it.

The relationship between success and comfort.

I know that after reading the paragraphs above, you are feeling that achieving success is very difficult and demanding. However, that is not the truth. Achieving success is extremely easy; we make it difficult.

We create a comfort zone for ourselves. That’s a place where we feel that nothing threatens our existence and all our fears are at bay. This is where we feel safe, comfortable, happy, and protected. When we continue to live in this zone for a long time, it becomes our ‘average’ life. But average is not what we strive for, and that is where the need to come out of this zone emerges.

When you set out towards the extraordinary and grow, the same comfort zone that once acted as a safe ground for you now becomes your biggest barrier and enemy.

Whenever you do something new, it is unknown to your comfort zone, and therefore, you begin to doubt your actions. Your comfort zone considers it a threat to your safety and repeatedly tells you not to do it.

Let’s say that you have always wanted to become a photographer and travel the world, and you have decided to do it. But to pursue this dream, you need to quit the job you have been doing for years. The job and the salary you get have become your comfort zone because they provide you with financial security. When you think of quitting your job, the alarm of your comfort zone goes off, telling you not to leave this job. That is how the comfort zone becomes an enemy for growth and success – it prevents you from taking risks.

A few moments ago, I said that achieving success is easy; we only make it difficult. And that is because we build a comfort zone. If we did not have a comfort zone, we wouldn’t fear trying new things, and we would not stop growing and succeeding.

How to break your comfort zone?

We now know that the biggest barrier in our journey to becoming extraordinary is our comfort zone. Therefore, to go through all the grind needed to become extraordinary and successful, we need to leave this cozy area behind and venture out towards what we want to do. We need to learn how to break our comfort zones.

There are three things that we can do to get out of our comfort zone and start growing:

  1. Change your beliefs.
  2. Accept Discomfort and Challenges.
  3. Strive for Growth.

Change Your Beliefs.

Your thoughts and beliefs define your reality, and if you look closely, you will find that your comfort zone is a belief too. It is an idea that hovers in your mind, and with enough repetition, becomes something you believe in. That is why every new thing seems strange when you first try it, but it becomes easy and comfortable with enough familiarity.

So, wouldn’t it be great if you inculcate the belief of being a risk-taker, a courageous person, and a bold decision-maker? Yes, and it is very simple to do that! You develop your comfort zone through familiarity and repetition, and that is what you need to do here. You should continuously repeat words like, “I am a risk-taker. I am courageous. I am a bold decision-maker. I accept challenges. I attract success and growth.”

Remember, the key is repetition. The first time, it will seem awkward because it is outside your defined comfort zone. But with repetition, you will develop familiarity with being a risk-taker and a bold decision-maker.

Accept Discomfort and Challenges.

The thought of facing your fears and insecurities seems daunting, but it can become less treacherous and frightening if you simply turn these negative feelings into your friend instead of a foe. How does this help? Well, imagine that your fears and insecurities are like a friend who always feels pessimistic and demotivated. As their friend, you need to uplift and inspire them, and that is exactly what you need to do with your fears and insecurities. You need to talk to them and turn them around so that they empower you. If you fear going into a financial crisis by quitting your job to pursue your photography passion, then turn that situation around by imagining how much joy and peace you will miss if you don’t follow your passion. You are merely changing your perspective here, and with that, you are empowering yourself and weakening your comfort zone.

Instead of rejecting and detesting discomfort and problems, you should accept them with an open heart and welcome them. You must understand that all the challenges, discomforting situations, and problems exist to push you towards growth and success. With this belief, you will accept more and gain control over your circumstances.

There is another interesting way to welcome discomfort. Instead of considering difficult and discomforting actions as something that lie outside your comfort zone, think that by doing these things, you are expanding your comfort zone and growing, allowing you to do even more things. If that is how you look at all challenges, you will gain even more motivation to overcome them and expand the spectrum of your possibilities!

Strive for Growth.

Working on the mindset and beliefs is very important, but that will be of no use if you don’t take substantial actions focused on growth. You don’t need to get intimidated by the end goal of overcoming many challenges; you just need to focus on the next step. You need to focus on one action at a time out of many actions. Then, you need to focus on one single activity inside the specific action. And, you only need to set the goal of finishing that one single step inside that activity. That is how you make progress each day. All you need to keep in mind every day is, “Today, I am growing, and I am expanding my horizon of possibilities.” With this attitude, you will achieve success, and you will grow!

When you inculcate all these ideas, your comfort zone’s wall will start becoming more permeable, and you will gradually begin growing. When you challenge yourself even more, you will eventually break the wall down and exponentially grow!

This is the discomforting truth about your comfort zone: your comfort zone is your biggest enemy.

Thank you so much for reading this post! I truly value the time you have invested in learning something new, and I hope that this post fulfilled that purpose! Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I will surely respond!

Too dive deeper into overcoming fear and self-doubt to develop more self-belief, you can check out my latest best-selling book, Explore The New You, by clicking here!

UPDATE:- I recently made a YouTube video regarding this topic. You can watch it below!

Partnering in your success and growth,
Prabhsimrat