Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Bruce Keener

Most people realize that it’s hard to get ahead in life unless you are willing to occasionally get out of your comfort zone. But knowing and doing are not the same thing. Most of us like to stay in our comfort zone because, well, it’s comfortable. But, it’s also a “known quantity,” whereas the wide area outside of our comfort zone is an “unknown quantity,” and we typically have a fear of the unknown and we avoid what we fear.

I am of the belief that we can develop our ability to get out of our comfort zone by starting small and working our way up. To see what I mean, consider the following tidbit from my ancient history:

  • When shopping for my first new car, almost 35 years ago, I decided to get a Toyota Celica … it was sporty, good on gas, and had several features I wanted.
  • But, there was a problem: it only came with a 5-speed standard shift transmission, and I had only driven cars that had an automatic transmission.
  • But, I decided to get it anyway, knowing that doing so would force me to learn how to drive a standard shift. It took me a couple of weeks to master starting up on a hill and to get comfortable with when to shift, but ultimately driving it became second nature to me, and I was glad I got of my comfort zone to get it.

Doing things like that over the years helped me develop confidence in my ability to succeed when getting outside of my comfort zone. (Of course, there were opportunities to stretch that I turned down, and I now regret some of those.)

So, developing self-confidence is one key factor.

Another thing you can do is to list all of your fears and negative beliefs, and then work on overcoming those to the extent that you can. When I’ve done this I have found that some of my fears and some of my negative beliefs are completely irrational. Just by seeing them on paper I can almost overcome them, because I see how stupid they look.

But working through this list is generally not easy: some of my negative beliefs are ones that I have had for years, and overcoming them has been a real challenge, even when I can see how stupid they look on paper. (An example of a negative belief is “I do not have the willpower to lose weight.”)

I’d love to hear any insights you have on how to get out of our comfort zones.

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  • Helen

    I think this is such a good topic to bring up, and such an important thing to do. I decided to push myself beyond my comfort zone by taking part in NaNoWriMo. It’s only a little thing, but for me it’s a big push to get over my self doubts and actually do it, and it’s very liberating. If you want to do this, I think it’s vital to have some support, whether it’s from family and friends or from other people doing the same challenge. It really helps if there is a finite limit at which point you can say you are successful, like a deadline or just being able to do something without thinking about it anymore.

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Hi Helen,
      Congratulations on diving into the novel-writing challenge. That does sound like fun, and definitely a challenge.

      Good point about finite deadlines and getting support. Of course, the more one steps out of the comfort zone, the better one gets and encouraging oneself and having the self-confidence to succeed even when others think it can’t be done.

      Thank you for your comment and insights.