Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone!

by Dr. Vesna Grubacevic

Do you feel stuck or unfulfilled in your current career, relationship, health or family situation? Are you fed up with where you are in your life right now? Would you like to safely step out of your comfort zone and into greater levels of success, happiness and fulfillment?

It is important to adapt to changing environments, whether these be the changing economy, career or business situation, family or personal situation. If you stay in your comfort zone, it makes it more difficult to adapt and to prosper in that new environment. It is only when we step out of our comfort zone that we learn, grow and evolve as people, and we excel in an ever changing world. Despite this, some people are comfortable with where they are right now in life and they remain in their comfort zone.

The comfort zone

The comfort zone is called a comfort zone because it is comfortable. You have probably heard the expression that humans are creatures of habit. We get used to living life in a certain way and, unless something dramatic happens to propel us out of the comfort zone, we continue plowing along because it is what we know, what we are used to.

Despite feeling unhappy or unfulfilled, we persist with the current lifestyle because it is all we know, and to step out of what we know can be scary. The unknown is unknown and uncomfortable, so we stay where we are comfortable.

Some people are successful yet they are still unfulfilled, because they know deep down inside that there is more that they can achieve and they thirst for more. Again, to venture out of something that they know is uncomfortable. Regardless of whether you are highly successful or otherwise, after a while wherever we are in life, it becomes our comfort zone. To step out of it can be daunting or uncertain.

The 3 Catalysts

Generally, there are 3 catalysts that propel people out of their comfort zone:

1. things need to get really bad eg. retrenchment, separation, divorce, relationship break-up, major health issue, death in the family, etc. These lead people to rethink and to re-evaluate their life, and commit to making a change and act upon it.

2. things need to be really good eg. having a baby, getting married, being promoted, starting a business, etc. These positive experiences help people to step up to the next level of success, happiness and fulfillment in life.

3. getting fed up of being in the comfort zone and of feeling unfulfilled. Life for these people is OK and they have no compelling reason to change anything… until one day they wake up and they decide enough is enough! It is time to really live life and to experience everything that life has to offer.

The question for you is: “Which one will you choose to step out of your comfort zone?”

Reap the Rewards

To reap even greater rewards in life, we need to trust ourselves to take calculated risks and to back our own decisions. Remember, sometimes you need to go out on a limb to get the fruit!

The best way for you to safely and smoothly step out of your comfort zone is to resolve any unresolved emotions, fears, anxieties and self doubts so that you can more easily access and develop new strategies for continuing to succeed and achieve your potential. This will also ensure that you create even greater certainty for yourself. So rather than the unknown or uncertain, stepping out of your comfort zone becomes a wonderful exciting journey full of anticipation, and even greater success and happiness!