Do you know how much your comfort zone is affecting your success? Most don't even realize how their comfort zones are holding them back.

In this article, let's talk about how your comfort zone is probably affecting your life, why we even have a comfort zone, and practical ways to acknowledge and get out of it.

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The Problem with "The Comfort Zone"

The problem with the comfort zone is that it's comfortable. So why wouldn't we want to stay in it? If you think about it, our comfort zones limit us to grow. If we stay within our comfort zones, we get very stale and stagnant. But yes, we want to be appreciative of this current moment, however we should still continue to strive for something better.

If you're like me who has a growth mindset, we always want to continue to contribute, be better, reach more people, and do whatever it is we need to do to get to that next level. The only we're going to get there is to get out of our comfort zones.

Comfort Zone: We get uncomfortable with "too much".

Even with those who have growth mindsets also fall into the trap of staying within the comfort zone. Say we take a step forward – for instance, I've decided to do a bunch of sales outreach, and then all of a sudden, I get a ton of activity. Everything is going great, I'm getting a lot of inquiries. And then I realized, I probably have too much so I stop. I notice that too much is out of my comfort zone because it's something that I'm unfamiliar with – and that I am satisfied with just enough. But if you think about it... did I grow? Was I able to help a lot of people? I lost many potential leads, when I just could've had more people in my team to accommodate everyone. But no, I decided to stop because it was outside my comfort zone.

How to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

It is actually not so hard to get out of your comfort zone. The first step of breaking out is being self-aware of your comfort zone. Notice the patterns – what is too much, at what point do you feel uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar to what you're used to?

The next step is to move forward in incremental increases. Go to the next level within the comfort zone, and then make that your new baseline of comfort. Move forward in little steps – break your goal into simpler blocks. Recognize the sensation of unfamiliarity in every step, push forward and power through. Then be grateful for the growth you're accomplishing.

If you leap too far too fast, like when sometimes you just got to go in there and get it done – you hope, hold your breath and figure out what happens. But if you can see the path and take little incremental, inching steps, we can get some really cool opportunity to play and achieve our goal that's far beyond our comfort zone.

I challenge you. What is it that you are holding yourself back from?

Video Timestamp

0:00-1:27 How does your comfort zone affect you?
1:28-9:46 Getting Uncomfortable with “Too Much”
9:47-19:42 How to Get Out of the Comfort Zone
19:43-29:10 Challenge: Get Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone
29:11-30:03 Closing