15 Ways To Get Out Of The Comfort Zone
“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you . And don’t worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?” – Rumi
When it comes to the comfort zone, one of the main questions that you may ask yourself is “Why am I stuck in my comfort zone?”
Well, The honest answer is that the comfort zone is a sticky place to live in for most of us! When you are in your comfort zone, you get stuck in it, and while you stay in it you slowly give yourself enough reasons and explanations to stay in it, because the more you stay in it, the more reasonable it becomes for you! And getting out of a sticky place even when it is just in your mindset, needs effort and courage…
But when you start your personal growth journey, you get the courage to face your own inner battles too. And one of the questions that you may ask yourself is:
How to make your comfort zone insecure for yourself, so that you can get out of it more easily?! Just like adding soap to greasy hands, to wash them out of the oil and grease, acknowledgement is necessary for getting out of the comfort-zone!
What Is A Comfort Zone?
The comfort zone is a set of repetitive behaviors, actions and habits that you are completely familiar with, which is called a Comfort Zone. (Read the compete article here)
The Comfort Zone is usually formed from your constant experiences or fears. Experiences that bring you the least anxiety, worry and danger, or the fear that makes you avoid coming to contact with certain experiences.
People who always stay in their comfort \one, go for very low-risk lifestyles, including jobs, relations and experiences. As a result, very small areas of successes in new things comes to their way, because they have a limiting mindset towards the new things and new experiences that comes to their ways. Sometimes, many opportunities show up in their life, but right at that moment, their comfort zone comes to the surface, with reasons and excuses and explanations that burns the new opportunities to ashes in order to keep them secured in their safe zone.
If you ask yourself “What does the feeling of comfort come from in the ‘comfort zone’?” or
“Where exactly is the ‘comfort zone’ in real life?” I can give you an example for it:
Imagine you have planned a five-day trip to go out of town with your friends. One of your friends suggests a trip to the an area that you have never been to before. So, You give a negative answer without thinking and instead of evaluating your options, you suggest a trip to the same place that you always go for your holidays where you have a feeling of attachment and comfort because you feel more safe and secure in it and almost everything about it seems predictable to you.
Another friend asks your opinion about inviting some of their old friends to this trip, and you firmly say no again! without knowing anything about them or asking any questions you feel a strong urge to avoid meeting them… Is this story not familiar to you? The story of finding yourself in an uncomfortable feeling and in opposition to going to new places and meeting new people?
This is an example of your Comfort Zone that sometimes comes out strong and shows you that you are afraid to compromise.
Neighbors Of The Comfort Zone!
If you feel safe, secure and comfortable in this floor, it is because you are fully familiar with the building engineering and space of this floor. Because in times of danger, you know each and every part of this floor and you can predict everything in it. Every mindset and habit of yours can be a resident of this floor.
For example, let us think that you are an English teacher and now you are teaching in an institution where you don’t earn much money or recognition. You have the ability to form your own private classes and by doing this you will get more profit. But for ten years now, you have been teaching in this institution and you are not ready to start a freelance activity or go beyond your fears and explore new things that may give you more recognition or money. Because you are already in your safe zone and you feel comfortable there.
Fear Zone
Fear and anxiety are the inhabitants of this class. Making excuses, not having self-confidence and insisting on staying in the Comfort Zone are the obstacles that do not allow you to cross the Comfort Zone.
Remember the example of the language teacher that we mentioned above. What is your reason for staying in the educational institution? Why are you not ready to work independently after ten years of professional experience while deep down you know that you have many more possibilities?
Your only reason for avoiding other options such as private teaching is the fear of unemployment, uncertainty, and lack of information about what is happening or the fear of the unknown.
Learning Area
Learning and challenging yourself are the solutions when it comes to the fear zone! As the name of the area is the fear zone, it makes us fear the changes, the challenges and the unfamiliar or familiar situations depending on the situation we are in…
But when you fear, you also have an opportunity to learn new things. In the learning area you have to be strong enough to face your fears, and accept the growth process which allows you to learn new things such as new skills or methods that help you overcome your fears.
If we look at our example, We can see that as a language teacher, you examine all the ways of self-employment and its aspects in this level. So after consulting with several freelancers, you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the work and make your final decision with a calm and confident mind about learning new ways to increase your income or grow your audience. This is because you allow yourself to learn and grow.
Growth Zone
This is where you see the result of your learning and efforts. Where you allow yourself to go beyond the challenges and step into accepting changes into you life, so you take a step forward and plan new goals, and move beyond your limits.
Here, you know your strengths and use them for more positive achievements as you are already facing the challenges that come to your way.
Now if you think about the example, you can see that in this stage, you already are an independent language teacher who has turned your name into a brand by holding private classes and has grown significantly financially because you have outgrown your old self and you already are out of your safe and comfortable zone.
Benefits Of Leaving The Comfort Zone:
Your life can be divided into before and after leaving the Comfort Zone.
Here are three of its advantages:
1) Self-Confidence
By challenging yourself in activities that you don’t normally do, you can experience some of your self-doubts in a controlled environment.
Naturally, when you start doing any activity, there are some weaknesses in your work, and you may not be perfect in it. But if you overcome your fear and don’t stay in the Comfort Zone and don’t give up, you will see your progress day by day.
2) Flexibility
Life does not always go according to our wishes. It is sad but true. So as we should always have positive attitude towards things in life, we must keep in mind that it is not always sunshine in the real life and we have to prepare ourselves for stormy days too.
The Comfort Zone makes many people ideal depending on the situation, while during the crisis, this Comfort Zone is the one that will empty your strength before anything else. Just by moving away from the mental Comfort Zone, you can prepare yourself for any situation.
3) Growth And Prosperity
After overcoming fear and leaving the Comfort Zone, prosperity and new opportunities will greet you soon enough! At this stage, you must take the necessary measures to reach the growth and prosperity zone, this is the stage where you can know that you are already in your growth path! (Read this article to learn more about developing a growth mindset)
15 Ways To Get Out Of The Comfort Zone
If you want to prove your courage to yourself and get out of the Comfort Zone, these 15 solutions will take you as far as you want!
1) Do unpleasant things!
Taking a cold shower, waking up early in the morning, using a bicycle instead of public transportation if you live in a bicycle-friendly country, talking about your problems and looking for new solutions, changing your life routine, limiting your ego, challenging yourself for new skills, and etc., which of these things bothers you when you really think about them? Go ahead and face them!
Make a list of all the things that are unpleasant for you which make you feel challenged by them, and facing them is a step outside of your Comfort Zone. This list is a great way to map out the things you can do but avoid just because you feel comfortable or you are used to avoiding them.
Action step:
To start, you can do two unpleasant things daily for a week. In the second week, you can evaluate your progress and increase the number of unpleasant tasks for yourself. Repeat this process for a while, look at your list after a few weeks. Then you can look back and realize that you are on the process of building your way out of your Comfort Zone!
2) Take a video from your Comfort Zone.
Going in front of the camera is a nightmare for many people, but it can increase your self-confidence to a great extent. The golden point of this method is doing something enjoyable in front of the camera! You should do your favorite thing and film yourself at the same time. It was nice that the activity done can eliminate the unpleasantness of the camera for you. You may be annoyed at the beginning as it probably is something new to you, but don’t give up too soon because you will make significant progress after a while. And you can look back at the video after a while and see your own growth when you put the comfort-zone behind.
Action step:
It doesn’t matter if you are doing sports activities or cooking, talking about your current problems, or learning about knitting, press the recording button and don’t think about the rest of the story, just let your future self become proud of you when you look back at the video.
3) Ask questions
Asking good questions, and asking questions well, is an important skill for coming up with the right solutions at the right time… Having a conversation about different topics is a simple technique with incredible results. Because you have to evaluate the opinions or learn to listed to the other party and compare the answers with your previous knowledge. Here, your Comfort Zone is endangered and you might get irritated because after evaluating the other options or learning about the ideas of the other people, your previous knowledge is questioned… So you have to be flexible and humble enough to go to this process and allow yourself for challenging your own point of view or knowledge.
Action step:
Ask basic questions. Ask about the issues that are important to you and you are completely sure of what you know, but allow yourself to learn more. Listen deeply to the opinions of the others and think about them without prejudice.
4) Make a small change
Do you eat alone at work? Well, go to the table of your colleagues and talk to them if they are positive people. Change the state of your hair, if it is short, let it grow a little longer, and if it is always long, cut it a little or change the style. Change the route to your university. Or if you always go to work by bus, take the metro this time eve if it takes few minutes of walking. Do not get caught in the swamp of the easiness of the constant repeat and the Comfort Zone!
Action step:
Choose a small task that will make a relatively big change. These changes may be a little scary for you at first as they may make you feel uncomfortable, but promise yourself that you will go beyond and you won’t settle too soon.
5) Talk to strangers
It is true that when we were children, our parents told us not to talk to strangers and they were right to tell us not to take chocolate from them, and in short, not to step outside the Safe Zone, but now the situation is different. Talking to strangers takes you into two areas of fear and learning as a grown adult. It is even possible that a friendly relation between you and a stranger be formed from this conversation, or a new point of view will be added to your knowledge because of a small talk in an event!
Action step:
Open up the conversation in possible places such as exhibitions and events. You can talk to the first stranger you see on the exhibition and ask them about something, or when you attend and event. You can start by talking about general topics and see how the conversation goes on from there.
6) Try a new skill
By trying new things, you enter the learning zone. Try to add a new skill to your previous experience every once in a while, a skill that you had no plan to learn before. Try not to obsess too much about choosing this skill, and don’t allow your perfectionism tell you that you need to be perfect in it!
Action step:
It doesn’t matter what skill you want to learn, just challenge yourself and go ahead with something available, the important thing is to learning it and not to overestimate it.
7) Controlling is prohibited!
You may be surprised to hear this title, and you are right. We have always been told to take control of the situation and in many cases we really should! But let me be honest with you. Sometimes you have to stop controlling and learn to allow the universe take the control for you, that’s when you’ve freed yourself from the Comfort Zone prison and you are learning to become free. When you don’t control everything, amazing things happen to you. Adapting to these events is the solution to breaking the fortress of the mental Comfort Zone and even the inner mindset of being comfortable in controlling everything in order to avoid any unwanted results. After some time, you will notice that your ability to manage emergency situations has increased incredibly while you don’t feel challenged for everything that comes up!
Action step:
Choose one of the priorities written in your checklist. Then avoid writing your every step to control it. Let the steps of this work proceed without prior planning or thinking too much about it’s process and results. You may feel anxious at first as you are not used to doing it, but remember that emotional anxiety is undeniable in the phase of leaving the Comfort Zone.
8) Exercise differently!
This is a technical method that takes you out of the Comfort Zone mentally and physically. By doing a different exercise than usual, your neuroplasticity (neural flexibility or brain reparability) grows. This technique gives you the ability to accept new mental and physical challenges and on the other hand, it prepares you to move towards these challenges by getting out of your comfortable routine and comfort zone.
Action step:
Have you not started exercising yet? Choose your favorite sport with a simple Google search. Or if you exercise three times a week. From now on, try to do the stretching and cooling exercises in different ways than usual.
9) Do not label your feelings
It is natural to feel confused and anxious when you leave the Comfort Zone. The point that you should consider at this stage is: Don’t label yourself and your feelings… I mean, don’t tell yourself “Why I am such an anxious person!” or “Why can’t I take a step to change, without stress!” “Why do I always get restless when changing my daily routine? or change in my mindset comes up!”
First of all, you should keep in mind that you are a human and these feelings and thoughts are completely normal, as many humans are not a big fan of change… But you should not give them wings too much either! Always trying to control your emotions will only lead to more anxiety. Accept all the feelings in you and use them as fuel for your movement forward.
Remember, it is because of these worries and the uneasiness that we humans go ahead and do our best to improve the situation..
Every time you feel stressed and worried when you are facing your comfort zone, write it down on paper and tell yourself that you have the right to feel that way and that it is not a bad thing at all. Then allow your self to take action without thinking much more. Remember it is hard to start but it is harder to regret.
10) Give a speech
77% of the population have some kind of fear of speaking in public. Public speaking prepares your fear to cross your comfort zone more easily.
Action step:
You can start by expressing your personal opinions in small friendly groups. Then get into bigger groups. Finally, you can have a speech on stage in a big hall about your job or any subject that excites you and is appropriate for the occasion.
11) Embrace the answer of getting No!
Sometimes the reason for not starting, not experiencing and not doing is nothing but the fear of hearing no! There are different reasons why we fear No as an answer and it’s a different topic, but you need to know that failures is one of the factors that makes you a successful and determined person. Failure will be the key to your future success as it is a very good teacher and you can learn a-lot about yourself from it. Don’t throw yourself into the Comfort Zone for fear of not hearing a no answer, being rejected is not pleasant for anyone, and not being taken seriously, finally failing feeling unworthy or the feeling when you feel that your ego is being hurt from receiving no an an answer, but you have t challenge yourself and learn to accept it as part of your life and part of breaking your comfort zone.
Action step:
Make a request and hear no answer! Yes, you heard right! Break this fear in yourself by making a request for which the answer is more likely to be a big no! For example, invite your boss to your grandmother’s birthday party. (If you think it was not a good example, you can come up with some better ideas yourself.) 😀
Hearing no several times is like a hammer hitting the glass wall of your mental Comfort Zone. So, go ahead, let it be broken and you will see it was just not as difficult as you were thinking! Be sure that you hit this glass hard and allow it to break so that you can let go of this comfortable fear!
12) Be creative!
Creative actions are one of the most entertaining and valuable mental activities. Creativity is about leaving the Comfort Zone of our mind, our view our knowledge and entering new experiences in a new environment or new challenges.
Action step:
Do your old ideas in the most creative way possible. For example, you can decorate your favorite food in a creative way. Arrange the pots inside the house in a geometrical shape. Make your own desk tools, or make handmade things to give as gifts to your dear ones.
13) Do not widen the Comfort Zone!
When you want to start a new activity, you may think that you have to complete a big task in the most perfect way possible. This thinking causes you to be disappointed with the smallest problem in your work and leave it unfinished. This makes your mental Comfort Zone wider and wider every time…
Please don’t be hard on yourself! Have you ever seen a driver who, after getting his license, is afraid to go to the winding mountain roads without much experience in the roads? You should not do something that you don’t dare to leave the Comfort Zone with wrong goals and even more wrong actions. For sure having big dreams and goals is amazing in life.. But you need to be mindful of your actions and goals so that you don’t make your comfort zone wider by giving yourself unrealistic or un achievable ideas specially at the start.
Action step:
Look at the list of your goals, cross out the things that are far from your mind and replace the small things or steps. After some time, come to your list and check the results and act accordingly. Now after few steps forward, you can choose a few bigger tasks and goals. This cycle continues until eventually those far-fetched tasks return to your list.
14) Secure your circle of relationships
Stop associating with people who are not supporting your growth, the people who are just empty handed when it comes to pushing you forward in life or cheering for your growth and success when it comes to reality. These people turn you into a weak and fragile person, and a weak person does not have the ability to leave their Comfort Zone. You don’t need to delete people from your life at once, you can find a solution by having a good conversation with that person about the way you want them to be there for you, or look for solutions and answers, but if they do not want to be in your life and they don’t love you, you can accept it and replace them with people who do, there are many kind, purposeful and hard-working people who will love and accept you just the way that you are and still be there for you and support you and give you motivation with a good heart.
Action step:
Do not enter groups that are full of negative energy people. It is better to walk alone in the park and think about your goals than to attend these gatherings and loose all you positive mindset and energy.
15) Define others
If you are not a jealous person, this solution can help you a lot! Just don’t be fooled by its simplicity and do it without any questions or answers…
Complimenting other people’s success, and shoot the arrow into the heart of your Comfort Zone! You can challenge yourself, change, grow by having a good mentality about this.
Action step:
When your friend, family member or colleague is successful in an area of you interest, ask, and learn from them, it is not for you to be negative about your own growth and achievements but to learn new methods and new ways to grow. Also you can learn from the successful people’s memory-books and stories. don’t hesitate and compliment them in our mind but also teach yourself about the possibilities of going beyond the limitations and the limiting comfort zone in your own life.
There is a point or maybe even an issue that you should pay attention to when it comes to leaving your comfort-zone! And it is returning to the Comfort Zone.
Because you cannot just step out and stay outside of your Comfort Zone forever!
To analyze you own process and digest your experiences, you must return to the mental Comfort Zone from time to time, and prepare yourself for new teachings, ne challenges and new techniques.
As our goal is to learn and gain new experiences in life, and this draws a thick line between successful people and unsuccessful people in their personal development paths. The willingness to challenging themselves and giving themselves the time and space for more understanding and the flexibility in learning and growth.
So, try to patiently leave your Comfort Zone and return to evaluate it after a while. To confirm these teachings you need to have a good perspective of your own growth process. This cycle is eternal, as life itself is.
As every-time you break your own boundaries and limits, you learn many things about yourself and life in combination. Every-time you step forward in challenging your own self, you may face a new comfort zone and new things will come to you as you step into new horizons, so enjoy being in this cycle of breaking the comfort-zones one after another and evaluating them from time to time, you always can learn and grow more!
Now we are all familiar with the process of growing out of our Comfort Zone and know the benefits of leaving it. We all know ways to get out of the mental limitations which keeps us back and with the new knowledge which we can use to gain new experiences.
For example, you can use the following experience for getting out of you comfort zone and you can go ahead and do something like the following example:
“I am planning to travel with a tourist tour and I want to travel alone for the first time. I will be traveling with new people in this tour for a few days. I plan to get to know these people more and talk to them if they are friendly (something I didn’t do on previous tours).”
There will be a time when you will tell yourself:
“I’m ready to leave my comfort zone behind now! I am ready to let the old version of my own mindset and limits go, to explore new horizons of life, the way I have never experienced before…”
And that is an important stage of change! Which shows you, that you have outgrown your past, and you are already moving forward in the personal development process! (And if you are reading this article because you are already there… Then, congratulations, I am happy for you!) 🙂
(Click here to read about ‘Inner Peace’.)
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