Our comfort zone, it keeps us safe, warm, comfortable and snuggly. It also keeps us stagnant, scared and weak.
Our comfort zone is brilliant at keeping us safe and protected, it’s like a fluffy blanket that’s been wrapped around us and we never want it to be removed. We all love it, we all love that feeling of safety, but behind all of the fluffy warmth lurks a dark secret.
Our lovely warm, fluffy comfort zone covered in unicorns actually contains evil monsters called procrastination, weakness and stagnation. These are monsters that we really don’t want in our lives and the only way to escape from them is to step out of our warm comfort zone.
Stepping out of the zone doesn’t mean you’re stepping into the unknown, the darkness or the pit of doom, quite the opposite in fact. Stepping out of your comfort zone actually means stepping into a world full of sunshine, beautiful fields and actual Unicorns. A world I call the Growth Zone.
It’s called the Growth Zone because it’s the place where you grow. Your confidence grows, your skills grow and you grow as a person. There’s no secret path to this place of growth but it DOES take effort to make that step out of your comfort zone.
Stepping into the growth zone, even if it’s just dipping your toe into it each day, can make huge differences to you, to your life, your career and your business.
It DOES require effort from you but the very act of doing something each day that makes you think “oh crap!” can change you in so many wonderful ways.
Make connections, go to the cinema on your own, say hi to a stranger, anything like this that makes you feel uncomfortable will help you grow your comfort zone so what was once scary, then becomes natural.
Every time you enter that growth zone, your comfort zone expands to incorporate that new growth. Look at the people who do a skydive, initially they are SO scared but most, when they get back on the ground, would happily do it all again. Their comfort zone has expanded and embraced what they’ve just done. This applies to everything we do in life.
So get out there, escape that comfort zone and enjoy your time in the growth zone.
