Did you know life has no rewards for idle hands and unprofitable use of time? Learn how to get out of your comfort zone and be a real person of great value. Find valuable advice, quotes, examples and tips here.
Getting out of your comfort zone is one of the commonest topics talked about by life coaches, psychologists and motivational speakers. It is no more secret but one of the gems every individual must hold on to. If you are wondering how to get out of your comfort zone, then stay around here for a few minutes while I share with you some of the best practices, quotes and examples that will help you to leave behind all those stuff stealing your golden opportunities and success in life.
Before I hit on the nail, let’s try to understand the meaning of “comfort zone.”
What is a comfort zone? By definition the Cambridge dictionary says it is:
“a situation in which you feel comfortable and in which your ability and determination are not being tested.”
This sounds very clear and understandable. Comfort could be very toxic to productivity. It leaves the brain, body and soul inactive. Inactivity of these vital weapons leads to unprofitable life. If you have lofty goals in life, then your breakthrough isn’t in your comfort zone. Get ready to soar, run and fly like an eagle.
What Does Getting Out Of That Comforting Zone Feels Like?
Getting out of your comfort zone gives you uncomfortable experiences that pay off big in the long run. And here there are two things that summarize it all:
1. Facing The Reality Of Life
Almost every good thing comes at a price. There might be a few exceptions, however, but the real deal is about getting out of your comfort zone which never feels good. It’s like hitting the gym; Before you can see an improvement in your body —you need to soar. You will go to bed feeling intense pains in your muscles… This is what moves the needle; this is what brings that gains.
On the other hand, if you keep working around lightly void of intense muscle pains, you wouldn’t see any significant muscle gains. It is like putting your body in ‘maintenance mode.’
If you keep on holding onto the comforts of running on the treadmill, using the dumbbells and other gym equipment without soaking in enough pain into your body, you wouldn’t build yourself by increasing your muscle size. It wouldn’t be noticeable.
The discomforts of doing this lead to bigger gains. It works like, more pains —more gains in the gym as the slogan suggests. This reflects the life we live today.
This is what real life looks like. If you dream of making greater achievements in any field of life, then be ready to be tested by the turbulence of life. Interestingly, you have the potential to survive, overcome your challenges and achieve your lofty goals.
2. Like A Baby In Tiny World
Let me liken getting out of your comfort zone to a baby in its mother’s womb. You can imagine the comfort it feels. Think about it: constant food, water and oxygen supply without any effort of its own.
The baby in the womb feels very comfortable. This is what the life of many looks like. They can sit in the coach from morning to evening flipping channels on Netflix with bags of popcorn beside them. Huh, such a wonderful feeling…
To that person, getting out of this comfortable life hasn’t been a thought to consider. Because everything feels good. That dude is sitting on his dreams and other opportunities available to him elsewhere…
Let me quickly take you back to the baby in its paradise that is being fed, cleaned and protected automatically —thus no single effort of it is needed to see all these provisions coming in. What happens when it’s labor time?
The baby immediately starts crying when it comes out of the womb. Why? It has been displaced from its comfort zone.
What hurts most is how someone squeezed its head through the birth canal disrupting the peace and good life it had been enjoying. Hey, the baby will surely be mad, disappointed and cry out loud thinking everything is done.
When this said baby grows up to see the beauty of nature, the good things his parents have prepared for him, friends, neighbors, and loved ones he will meet; then he will realize he was living in a “tiny bubble“. It is all worth the pains and discomfort experience that happened in the labor ward.
Unfortunately, to enjoy life —one has to toil and earn a living. It’s not a place where someone will spoon-feed you like a baby. Go out there and get your food or stay hungry and die. Till the land and enjoy its fruits. Never be a lazy person. Eat from your labor and be proud of your endeavors; This is what life is about.
If you can voluntarily get out of your comfort zone, you would also realize all this while —you have been living in a tiny bubble thinking it’s Paradise. Sometimes, you would need someone to push you out of your comfort zone by motivating you to take the very steps you are afraid to take. Risk taking is part of the process. Don’t be afraid to move.
This Lifestyle Could Be Treacherous
You might put your health at risk if you remain in your comfort zone for long. You see, such a situation fails to test your reasoning power, physical fitness, spiritual growth and a couple of other important things. It’s one of the 8 bad habits that need to be avoided by any means necessary —unless you have no plans to be a person of value.
There is a story about a certain woman who is overweight. Because of that, she has developed complex health problems. What she does in the morning is to wake up, prepare breakfast, and get stuck on TV channels watching movies from morning to evening.
She has been spending a lot of money on her health by regularly going in for medical checkup. She has been advised by the doctor on several occasions to take some walks in the morning to shake up her body a little. She feels it too burdensome to do that.
One day the doctor got annoyed and warned that he will never take care of her if she is ever sent there for medical attention again.
This woman is gradually killing herself by staying in her comfort zone. This is one of the negative sides of getting used to staying in your comfort zone. It is the kind of life many individuals are living today. There’s no health benefit in staying in such kind of lifestyle, it rather jeopardizes it.
A little exercise like walking, stretching, jumping, and cycling shouldn’t be traded for permanent comfort in the house or anywhere. There is more to life than sticking to something that adds no value to your life but to entertain your five senses at all times. Remember, you were born for something bigger… Don’t limit yourself.
How To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
If you haven’t been advised or thought of getting out of your comfort zone, then today is the time. There are a few temporal sacrifices you have to make to enjoy a long-term profit. You were meant to plan, grow and expand in all facets of life. Whether it’s about your marriage, relationships, education, finances, spirituality, etc, never be stagnant in them.
1. Renew Your Mindset
If you hold on to the same thought of staying here or there to avoid negative feelings like rejection, disappointments, risk-taking, failure, criticism, etc, you wouldn’t make any progress in life. If you hold on to any negative emotion that prevents you from stepping out for greater things, then you will either be like stagnant water or go through a silent retrogression that will destroy your future.
The mind is a powerful weapon that needs to be used wisely to change things that don’t contribute meaningfully to your self-development.
Think about the positives rather than letting the negative emotions steal your happiness, success and any opportunity life presents to you. A positive mindset is always needed to make a progressive move in life. It is time you envision the future with a new lens. Drop the old one and start thinking like a real man ready for war. Your thoughts do influence your life and the future ahead of you.
2. Destroy Your Comfort Zone
After making a decision to get out of your comfort zone, be ready to destroy anything that makes you feel comfortable to the extent of casting a shadow on your potential. You might have been addicted to sitting in the house all day having fun —going out with friends who add no value to your life. Figure out all the things that fail to test your ability and determination and stay away from them.
Sometimes you have to take a radical approach by standing against anything that makes you feel too comfortable but gradually destroys your future like the corrosive nature of acid or acid rain.
I remember the story of a guy who was addicted to adult movies. He could barely break free by re-engineering his mindset as I have stated in point number one.
What helped him was to literally take away his computer and smash the screen with a hammer. He destroyed that to avoid going back to his comfort zone which has nothing better for his marriage and future but to play around with his feelings.
But hey, I’m not telling you to go to that extreme of destroying your computer, TV, phone, friends, etc, There are simple ways you can use to overcome bad habits that lead to poverty, suffering and an unproductive lifestyle.
You can dash out anything that you believe makes you feel too comfortable and lazy to challenge yourself to the top of the ladder of success. You can also dessert the place or things that make you “busy for nothing.” You can be busy all day doing nothing.
Take a different approach that makes you busy and hopeful about the future. Work hard without giving up. Any painful investment you make towards your future will pay off in the long run, so say “No” to the old ways of comfort and go out to sweat it out for a better future. Do what is worthy of your time, energy, knowledge and money.
3. Set Realistic Goals
You must be able to set achievable goals. Whether you will go in for short-term goals or long-term goals, they must be realistic. This is just the tip of the iceberg. You may think about rebuilding your physique by hitting the gym for a couple of months. You might also think of going in for a start-up and making 6 figure income in a couple of years.
All these begin by laying down your plans on paper. If you stay passionate about your goals, you will surely reach there. Unfortunately, it never comes on a silver platter. Ask any successful individual you can think of and the story of their journey to success will blow your mind. It’s not for the weak or the lazybones. If you think of cutting corners to the top, you will eventually regret.
Somewhere along the way, you would be challenged by failure, fear, rejection, and other negativities. If you persevere you will surely conquer.
Setting goals must also take the right direction. If you plan to build a business about cash crop farming then steer clear of your agric route, if you set goals about building a micro-finance, then steer clear of the financial route. You might be a food nerd who loves to run a restaurant… Stay on that path and never allow anything to derail you. Encourage yourself and be resilient to failure. If you take the wrong path, you might regret ever starting. That is why it is advisable to seek information about your proposed business before you even begin. Knowledge is power! Again, let your goals be definitive and executable.
4. Be Ready For The Pains
I wouldn’t lie to you, it would be a discomfort situation for you if you start migrating yourself from your old life full of good feelings with nothing productive. Be careful —you do not migrate with the junk things adding no value to your life.
Sometimes, you have to say goodbye to certain people who fail to encourage you or give you good advice on your life situations or future.
Making a progressive change will surely inflict some pain on yourself and others, especially your enemies who love to see you live as a baby in the womb. It is time to grow because you are no more a baby.
If that is the case, then your body, mind and soul are all going to be tested by life challenges; from the physical perspective to the spiritual. The enemy will never go down without bringing a fight to your doorstep. Be very strong to fight for the good plans you have set for yourself.
Pains and suffering are part of the journey to success. Your success could be financial freedom, spiritual freedom, mental freedom, etc, They all come after fighting real hard. At least being able to enjoy a life full of peace with the rewards of your hard-earned labor would be something to be proud of.
You wouldn’t always get someone to inspire or encourage you to get out of your comfort zone to make real progress in life. Sometimes, you have to psych yourself up and believe that in the end, you would be proud you made that decision to reach higher heights and be a person of value.
5. Laziness And Procrastination
Staying in one place without any effort of building your life or future will surely cause people to point fingers at you. Unless perhaps you were born into a royal family.
Even if you fail to learn how to work hard or your parents fail to condition you for work or the challenges in life, it wouldn’t be a good thing for you. Let take Bill Gates’ parental decision about his children as an example.
A few years ago Gates said he is giving out almost all his fortune (95%) to charity leaving his children to fight for their own wealth.
Recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger has also revealed that he is no more going to fund his son after graduating from college.
The moral lesson behind these two multimillion parents’ decision is clear; out of discomforts people are forced to survive, grow and make greater achievements.
Baena is passionate about becoming a movie star —then supplement it with Real Estate Business.
Real-life could be found outside your vicinity or ‘paradise’. A lazy man dislikes hard work. All he thinks about is food on the table, money in the bank account, fun time at the club and so forth.
Remember, that money is like a seed, if you sow it in good soil; it will grow and multiply. So it is advisable to invest money into a profitable business, work hard with your mind, use your energy and knowledge to create a better future for yourself, your family, and be a blessing to others. This isn’t for the lazybones, so it is time to weed out any weakness that makes you a lazy person.
No employer will delight in employing lazy people. Laziness doesn’t boost production. Procrastination is a thief of time, so don’t contemplate too much about your new idea of shunning that comfort zone. Give it a try with all seriousness. Test the waters and you would be thrilled to know that there is something beautiful and rewarding outside your comfort zone.
Why Is Getting Out Of Comfort Zone Difficult?
It is difficult in the sense that it becomes a bad habit that is wired into the subconscious mind. Anything stored up in this region of the mind is well programmed. It takes a lot of disciplines to make a change.
Quotes About Comfort Zone
Are you looking for Quotes about your comfort zone to motivate you to make a drastic move of progress in life? Here I will share with you a couple of those quotes to help you out while you strive to strip yourself of the bad habits of good feelings that result in wastage of precious time.
1. “Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.” —Unknown
2. “In order to grow and to experience, one must leave his comfort zone. Very often this means that you have to do what you are afraid of in order to find what you didn’t know you were looking for. This takes a lot of courage.” —Unknown
3. “Constantly look for challenges, pushing past your comfort zone.” —Robert Greene
4. “Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” —Brian Tracy
5. “To get out of the comfort zone is to grow, learn and advance for a better future.” —Dr T.P.Chia
6. “Get out of your comfort zone. Wake up the sleeping giant in you.” —Dr T.P.Chia
7. “It’s scary to take a leap into the unknown, but staying in your comfort zone is not going to bring forth greatness.” —Unknown
8. “The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.” —Karen Salmansohn
9. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” —Neale Donald Walsch
10. “It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” —Roy T. Bennett
Finally, the decision to get out of your comfort zone rest in your hands. If you need a better life in the future, then it is time to start the transformation process. Don’t get stuck where you are.
Grow and expand by taking up challenges in life without fretting. Winners never give up when pursuing their lofty goals. Out of discomforts, great thinkers, leaders, inventors, life-changers, etc, are born.