How To Expand Your Comfort Zone Without the Fear
We’ve all heard it before. “Stepping outside your comfort zone” is a term that many people use, but also one that a lot of people don’t fully understand. In this article we will take a look at the true meaning of your comfort zone, and how expanding it is not as scary as it sounds. I’ll also give you 5 proven tips for how to expand your comfort zone.
Warning: this information could change your life forever!
What Is Your Comfort Zone?
Your comfort zone is where you are when you’re cruising through life on autopilot. When you’re avoiding risk because you like the predictable nature of how your life is now, you’re operating in your comfort zone.
Everyone’s comfort zone is different. But you can recognize your comfort zone by these factors: you’re doing the same thing on repeat, and you’re performing at a steady level. An example of this would be working a boring job. Your job is “fine” but not the job of your dreams, and you seem destined to work there for the rest of time.
So… what’s your comfort zone? Take a moment to think about it. Are you staying the same weight even though it’s not how you really want to look? Are you working that mundane job that’s going nowhere? Recognizing your comfort zone is an important first step.
Why Your Comfort Zone Is Dangerous
Sure, you’re making ends meet. You’re doing okay by a lot of people’s standards. But your comfort zone has you locked into a routine that is kind of like a treadmill – you’re walking, but you’re going nowhere.
If you stay on the route you’re currently on, you are more than likely going to lead a life of regret. You’ll know what you want in your heart, but you’ll never take a risk to reach out and grab it. I’m telling you right now: this isn’t any way to live.
I know what you’re thinking. “But the only other option is to step outside my comfort zone." That sounds pretty scary, true? But the concept is widely misunderstood. In reality, you’ll never have to leave your comfort zone – you’ll just expand it.
How To Expand Your Comfort Zone
Imagine your life is like a muscle. If you want to build that muscle, you’ll need to exercise it. But understanding the fundamentals of exercise and muscle-building will help you see how reaching the life of your dreams is just a matter of slowly but surely expanding your comfort zone.
In 2012, a statistician named Nassim Taleb introduced a new concept of “antifragile systems." These are systems that “thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors." Some examples of these systems are evolution, the immune system, and (you guessed it) our muscles.
What in the world does that mean? When you’re exercising a muscle, you’re actually causing stress to it that the muscle learns from, which in turn grows the muscle bigger and stronger. To exercise our lives to get more and more amazing, we need to expand our comfort zone – and we do that by repeatedly putting ourselves in a state of heightened stress.
Why Expanding Your Comfort Zone Isn’t As Scary As It Sounds
Putting ourselves in stressful situations doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? But consider this amazing fact. The experience of fear is physiologically almost exactly the same as the experience of excitement. They are 2 different words for the same experience. If you decide to rename your anxiety as excitement, doesn’t that make expanding your comfort zone sound like a lot of fun? This is the strategy I've used in my Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking Hypnosis, which has helped thousands of clients drop their fear.
It’s important to understand that the end goal is not to leave your comfort zone and live a wild life of terrifying risks without any stability. Instead, the end goal is to expand your comfort zone until it’s big enough to include leaving that boring job, or losing that weight and feeling like your best self.
5 Proven Tips for Expanding Your Comfort Zone
1. Change up your everyday routine.
Practice doing your daily activities a little differently. Drive a different way to work. Wear an outfit you don’t normally wear. Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, just to chat and see how they are. Changing up your day gives life an opportunity to start blossoming into new and amazing things.
2. Try new foods.
Next time you eat at a restaurant, try something on the menu that you haven’t tried before. It could turn out to be your new favorite meal. Download some new recipes and try making something different for dinner. Add healthy touches to every meal you make: a side of veggies or a side of fruit.
3. Embrace your creativity.
Do you have a secret passion to be a painter? A ballerina? A ukulele player? I challenge you to jump in and start learning that craft you’ve wanted to learn since you were a kid. When you’re learning a new creative skill, you’ll quickly learn that it’s essential to start from where you are and work your way up.
4. Write a wish list.
Are you so stuck with the way things are that you can’t imagine life any differently? Start with a wish list. You know, like you would write to Santa when you were little. What are the things you wish you could have, be, or do? Sit down and write them out. Acknowledging our deepest wishes helps us better understand where we want to be.
5. Learn a new professional skillset.
Your dream job requires a skillset that you don’t have whatsoever. Then get that skillset for yourself! The internet is an amazing thing, filled with cheap or even free online courses that can teach you professional skills you don’t currently have. A year or 2 years from now, you could be running a pet grooming business, or opening a florist shop.
In Conclusion
Growing and expanding your horizons takes slowly expanding your comfort zone. Start with small steps at first, so you don’t get overwhelmed. Then move on to bolder and more adventurous steps. Soon you’ll be well on your way to making huge positive life changes, fearlessly.
Want a shortcut to expand the reach of your comfort zone? My hypnosis sessions are created with Neuro-Editing Technology that can break through negative thinking and instantly activate the part of your brain that allows for flow states of mind and achieving peak experiences. Join my Inner Circle today and see the magic happen in your own life!
