Growth Happens Outside Your Comfort Zone

If you’re into personal development then you will no doubt already know that growth doesn’t happen while you’re in your comfort zone. I want to give you a little reminder of that and encourage you to push outside of your comfort zone, whenever you’re reading this - take action today!

Growth happens outside of the above mentioned comfort zone. It happens when we’re pushed to think and act in new ways while we’re trying to achieve a certain outcome or goal.

Take how someone might train for a marathon for example. Every week you push your body little bit by little bit, stretching it outside of what it’s used to to build endurance, fitness and strength in new ways.

If someone were to spring a marathon on you tomorrow, unless you had been training each week, I doubt you’d feel very prepared nor would you have grown enough to complete it (without putting yourself in danger in the process!)

Likewise, if you keep your body in its comfort zone then it will not get strong of its own accord. It will get a bit wibbly wobbly, less fit and you’ll just be used to being comfortable. Anything outside of sitting on the sofa will feel extremely difficult.

Where in your life are you just ‘sitting on the sofa?’

Is your business stagnating a little bit? Is it time for a jump up the career ladder or perhaps a complete change in career? How’s your relationship doing? Perhaps you are now finally ready to be in a relationship?

How to know you’re in your comfort zone:

  • You’re not happy, perhaps you’d describe yourself as ‘content’

  • You feel a bit antsy about a situation

  • You don’t feel fulfilled

  • It feels too easy (not that there’s anything wrong with ‘easy’ but see above, are you fulfilled?)

  • The thought of stepping out of your routine scares you

No doubt there is an area of your life you’d like to improve upon. As humans, we’re designed to grow - growth is one of our 6 core needs.

There’s no need to become overwhelmed and try to grow every area of your life all at once because you’ll be likely to give it all up if it becomes too much. Choose one area, one goal, one desire and focus on that.

Of course, life also throws us ‘obstacles’ to overcome which will push us outside of our comfort zone against our will. You can flip this to see it as a positive, these obstacles are lessons on your journey and ultimately bring about growth in some way.

For instance, you could say that cancer was an obstacle of mine last year that pushed me out of my comfort zone in incredible ways, ways I wouldn’t even have ever imagined. But from the very beginning I saw it as a journey and an opportunity for growth. It was ultimately a positive, it helped me make some massive decisions in my life and helped me grow physically, mentally and spiritually.

If things stay the same in our lives and we don’t ever change and we stay on our comfy sofa, then we’ll never fulfill our dreams. We live our lives and make decisions based on past experiences (it’s our subconscious instinct) so if you don’t want to live your past experiences again, in different ways, you’d better start doing something different and stretching outside your zone of comfort! 

Action point: If you feel you are stagnating then journal about it. Life is meant to be lived and there are so many possibilities available to you. 

  • Where are you now in your health, relationships, career?

  • Are you happy where you are?

  • Do you feel too comfortable? Like you’re just going through the motions?

  • Where do you want to be?

  • What will it take to get there?

  • How can you try something new and step out of your comfort zone today?

  • What will it feel like when you have taken action to grow?

If you’d like support in stepping out of your comfort zone, a coach is a great person to have in your corner, someone to push you and cheer you on. You can learn more about working with myself as a coach here. If you’re interested and want to book an exploratory, 20 minute call with myself use the button below.

You can also connect with me on Instagram or listen to my podcast (Apple, Spotify, YouTube).

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