Table of Contents

Unconsciously all your life you create a zone of action for yourself out of your daily habits. Depending upon how you have been viewing life as a person, the zone of action could be a very limited sphere or a very spacious one.

But no matter how huge the expanse of it is, it’s still your zone, born out of your life habits, beliefs and social conditioning.

Our world, the world we live in is a vibrant and ever changing space. You cannot always depend upon your previous judgement and experience to tackle the ever changing new world. With the game, the rules of the game change too.

The philosophy by which you play might remain the same, but the scope of your actions should improve and expand.

Comfort zone is a thought process, a pattern, it has become intuitive for you and most of the decisions you make have become automated and subconscious. There’s no active thinking involved when you commit to a course in life or accept a belief. Now something so undetectable if not rewired in your favor, could constantly hamper your progress and growth in life, without you ever noticing, what’s going on wrong with you?

Know you are in your comfort zone when ideas like this make you uncomfortable. Know you are in your comfort zone when you reject an idea distastefully without even considering all its aspects or giving it a shot practically.

You are bound by your previous inhibitions. A change of perspective and thought process is much needed.

Comfort zone merely ensures survival, but never allows growth to happen. It might be difficult or wrong outside your zone, but trying is in your hand.

You should break out of your comfort zone because:

1. It will allow the emergence of new ideas within you.
2. It will open up new areas of opportunity for you.
3. It will open up new areas of interest for you.
4. It will make you open minded towards change.
5. You will adapt far more quickly to challenging scenarios and make progress sooner.
6. It will make you bold and courageous. You won’t miss the chances you don’t take.
7. Little things in life won’t disappoint you, as you will always see the bigger picture.
8. Life will become extremely exciting, challenging at times, yes! But very exciting.
9. Self-doubt will disappear and a new found confidence and belief will appear in your abilities.
10. You will never fear failing or being wrong, the only thing you will be weary of will be not trying.

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, We cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, Or honest.”
~ Maya Angelou

“Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the language of the world.”
~ Paulo Coelho

And how do you develop courage, by doing things that you fear, things which make you uncomfortable. Like muscle growth and like evolution, which happens under tension, under resistance and discomfort.

Make the theory of evolution your best friend and understand that to evolve as a person, as a professional and as a life, you will always have to keep pushing your boundaries or be adaptable when pushed out of your boundary forcefully, never get attached to a way of life or a state of being, be ready to jump into action whenever necessary.

It’s going to take fierce determination and commitment. You will have to make a no exception rule for yourself within yourself. To stop running from things which you usually avoid, to start saying yes! to opportunities which make you uncomfortable at the thought of them. Like taking the stage, hearing yourself over audio, speaking in front of the camera, pitching a not so ripe idea or initiating a conversation wherever it’s needed.

A conscious commitment to trying so many new things in a month, in a year and for the rest of your life, that being uncomfortable becomes the new comfortable.

Think of the space and freedom it will allow you to enjoy. You won’t be just you, whoever you are right now, you will be a lot many things, which you don’t comprehend at this point, but once you start stepping actively, consciously outside your comfort zone of, right and praise, you will start redefining YOU, who you are will expand and you will start discovering joy and peace in places you never thought even existed.

This simple thought is very magical. “In this humongous world of ours, what more can I find that I will love, what more will I discover, which will make me feel whole? What greater purpose I will encounter which I do not serve yet? What greatness awaits me outside my usual “Comfort zone?”

Whenever you have said no, even before trying something new or revisiting an old challenge, you are using your comfort zone oriented logic and thought process to defend yourself, to save yourself from opening up to a new vista and making sure the bubble of your conformity does not break. Because uncertainty is uncomfortable.

Such a thought process also has a name which is called “Motivated reasoning.” Now it’s a double edged sword, you can either use it in your favor to break out of pre-existing barriers or making sure that you don’t live your personal confinement, which feels so safe.  Like a convict who struggles surviving outside the jail, when he has lived long enough in it.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
~Aristotle

 

So here are your 5 ways to break out of your comfort zone

1. Find time for things that matter

Things that matter, like your health, fitness and education, theoretical or practical. Find time for it. Do not debate over whether you have time for it or not. Do not treat it as a secondary need in your life.

Eating right and drinking right has great value, whether you consume tea/coffee over green tea has great repercussions in the long run. Whether you decide to eat whatever is being served to you, or whatever that is available because you never gave much importance to eating, other than just filling your stomach or satisfying your taste buds.

Because you simply eat out of your comfort zone every day. This is the time I get hungry around and I eat whatever that I get. It’s just a regular motion. You are not conscious about it.

Similarly if I do not have any diseases or suffering from any other ailments, why the duck should I exercise or keep my fitness in check? Da duck, I am not even an athlete, so who’s got time for working out?

And then comes around an even more dangerous breed, a pseudo informed and half knowledge breed. Their eating right and working-out is born out of unconscious ideas about health and fitness and comfortable choices.

They exercise in a way which is easy to practice but brings no results, has no clear goal and is merely a repetitive self-indulgent behavior, which checks their mark of being physically active every day.

Eating right revolves around grabbing the easiest piece of food available, which has a barely healthy label, like sugar free or fat free and so on along those lines, eating flavored oats is my favorite pet peeve.

One should eat for their age, have a clear sense of goal and purpose in mind, one should eat by their body type and similarly should choose fitness activities most favoring their current zone in life. Not your own personal comfort zone which says, “You only need to do as much to live a healthy life.”

The principal of least effort is in action here. Everyone settles for the most they can get at the least effort. Mental or physical satisfaction. Now if you are not feeling the importance of topics which I discussed above in this point, and are wondering why am I fretting about it, then there’s a clear lack of education.

Now why you never bothered learning about all this in detail and in the direction of suiting your life goals, is because, it’s more effort, its effort into education and application, it’s taking responsibility and being accountable and most importantly it’s living outside your comfort zone, which you maintain so easily without any effort, so why bother? Who needs health and fitness and eating right and all, I survive and enjoy my life “FAIRLY” well every day, who cares about optimum performance?

A self-propagating cycle. Which is shaping our workforce and work culture into a really unhealthy way of living, minimizing growth and maximizing routine.

Consider this thought, “what if everybody starts demanding time for health and fitness?” Yes! Sure that will require a little less greed on the part of the big corporations, because people will be working a little less than usual, but I sure think their productivity will skyrocket like anything.

This simple change of attitude can bring about a healthy change in all walks of life on earth. I think with also a little less production because of this and less energy consumption the environment will benefit too and get time to recover.

Which brings me to my next point.

2. Think of the bigger picture, outgrow your established ideas and learn new things.

Initially think of the world as a whole and not you as an individual. A story like yours, far better or worse is happening somewhere around the globe. Whoever that person is does not know about you and you don’t know about him/her.

There are countless and millions of stories and events happening around the world right now, every seat is filled and nothing seems to be vacant. So if someone is doing something you don’t even know a bit about but it could be really useful for you, but as you don’t know it exists, how are you supposed to benefit from it?

Now if your first thought is, you already know what things benefit you and you are pursuing them, then you just missed out on an opportunity of exponential growth. Everything in life is a chance, the ones you take and the ones you don’t.

The simple chances you can take are: Try new food, try new music, attend events you rarely do, wear clothes which you usually avoid and think and speak about topics which you usually don’t.

Change starts with simple things like that.

If you are one in a billion and nothing you do really affects the world in any way or your immediate surroundings, why are you so hesitant of taking a chance? Fame and shame are merely an illusion. It’s in your comfort bubble.

A person in Brazil or some country you don’t belong to won’t even bat an eye if you fail miserably at something. Forget about another country, think about it in your immediate city, who knows you beyond your social circle?

Your social circle is your comfort circle, it only matters until you attach importance to it, in the big wide world, even your circle does not hold any value.

Because of cognitive scope limitation you are going to attach the most importance to only those things, which you have felt, experienced, seen, touched and got attached to. Anything beyond that is unreal for you.

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
~ Samuel Johnson, Essayist and man of letters

Optimum performance is necessary because you have got one life to live and even if you cannot see and do it all, You should at least be able to full fill your duty as an individual for yourself and your people, plus live a life of purpose and meaning to give back to the world what you have taken from it.

Living without a purpose and meaning is not really living. To find it you must dare to go beyond your current limitations. Limitations as such which you don’t even know exist. So the only thing you can do in such a situation is to learn feverishly, about everything and anything that grabs your slightest curiosity, apply reverently and experiment with an open mind like crazy.

Don’t worry nothing really matters, so if your intentions are clear and pure, beyond personal mastery and growth you do not desire anything else, no vices nothing, then charge full speed, forget judgement and approval, one life to live, take it like you mean it.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
~Dylan Thomas

 

3. Redefine your boundaries

 

“If you think you can do it, or you think you cannot do it, you are right.”
~ Henry Ford

 

“People often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, It makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”
~Mahatma Gandhi

Continuing with the point above, with learning everything is possible. You don’t have to accept everything, but you must be willing to experiment. Then bear the results good or bad in a good stead.

Forget what you think you can do and you cannot do, if you have the will, you will find a way. Otherwise you know excuses, excuses everywhere. Majority of the world will defend their comfort zone and challenge yours.

If your expansion threatens their zone, then they will start criticizing you and finding faults in minutest of your actions. Don’t pay much attention to it, as always be open to really constructive opinions and suggestions, don’t become arrogant.

Find value in every situation, even if you clearly notice someone, being unrealistically judgemental, keep an open mind and see if in their bitter words, some truth really shines out and you have discovered another avenue for growth.

I agree sometimes it becomes too much and you can only do so much at a time, but yes! Continually learn and expand your “One can only do so much zone” gradually and consciously and see what life brings to your table eventually.

 

4. Let go of your self-image, however you imagine yourself to be

Like about the world, forget about the ideas you have formed about yourself as well. No matter what you do never judge yourself and try to understand, why you did what you did, why you thought what you thought and start improving from there.

Your likes, dislikes, let them dissolve away for some time. Try new food, dance if you read too much, read if you dance too much. Lift weights if you always just run, run if you always just lift weights, start exercising if you merely just sit and read non-fiction if you always read fiction. Keep trying new types of music. I understand some music is completely unbearable as per individual taste, but try it once every single time.

Listening to different types of music improves your cognitive performance. The more type of music you can listen to and appreciate, the better your brain is developing. Because our brain takes time to understand and appreciate every rhythm of it. You do see people grooving to all sorts of music don’t you? They are not mad, they are enjoying music, like you enjoy your style of thing.

Whenever you meet someone with completely opposite choices than yours, instead of judging them or disliking them immediately, learn to see the world from their perspective. Now you don’t have to learn anything from them in particular, But hey! Understanding how a completely different human being other than you functions, is a great food for thought, and helps you escape your own mental barriers in more than 1 way.

That way you will feel at home everywhere, every scenario will be an amusing experience. Even when you are insanely agitated at times, you will learn to notice more clearly your own feelings and that of the other. Plus, the world will constantly remain an amusing playground.

 

5. Movement as a duty

You have to stop being a pond and turn into a river. For a pond to turn into a river, it needs an earthquake. You need to reject stagnancy and accept movement. Flowing water is fresh and energetic, stagnant water is muddy and lifeless, it’s basically a puddle that the world steps over and curses later on.

You will curse your own sorry state of puddle as well later on in the future. The only way to ensure that does not happen is to make a commitment to movement.

Say no to instant gratification and the urge to feel satisfied immediately. Have patience, stay in the zone of resistance longer until you reach where you want to. Don’t give up in the middle of it. Always choose what you want the most over what you want now.

Start acting out all your ideas, keep yourself busy at all times, be productive though and don’t be just busy for the sake of the clock and say you don’t have time. Be busy with productive work, make measureable progress in learning and in enacting.

Theory plus practical equals to experience, experience equals to more advance learning, the cycle then will repeat itself and bring forth your personal wisdom.

A movement in thought and in action. Change your thoughts and you will change your world. If you keep thinking the same thoughts you have been thinking all your life, you will act the same you have been all your life.

How can you expect change in such a scenario?

Change is inside out. It’s starts within and grows out forth. Movement as a dharma/duty, Movement as your karma/action.

Also change how you move, because the mind will follow where the body leads, learning about how to use things like body language in your favor is a good thing.

Your physical gestures and bodily movements greatly affect how you feel and think.

If you are willing to bring about a great change in your life, start changing the way you move. Sit straight, stand straight, don’t fold your hands in front of your when you talk to someone, always look straight when you walk, don’t tap your feet continuously while you sit and wait for someone or something, it induces anxiety. Little things like that, when you work on them consciously will help you break out of your comfort zone more easily.

A successful person understands this.

Conclusion

Take a notebook write down your daily schedule and evaluate all those things you have been doing the same for years. Try to find the areas of improvement. Write down some personal goals.

Start equipping yourself with the knowledge required to enact those goals. Though, be careful of moving into the information overload zone.

Repeat this cycle every time you think, your life is not changing. Change comes with you, to change you must first know what to change and how to change.

In our world of internet, you can figure out how to in a couple of seconds and start changing your life immediately.

Initially you just have to leave the comfort of your information bubble and venture into things which you don’t know, while being ardent on acting out once you have found the required information.

Drop your comments in the comments section and let’s continue this conversation there.