Five Steps To Break Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Outside your comfort zone can be a very good and nice place to be, as long as you don't tip the scales too far. Hence, it's important to remember there's a difference between the kind of controlled anxiety talked about and the very real anxiety that many people struggle with every day. Therefore everyone's comfort zone is different. Perhaps, what may expand your horizons may paralyze mine. Importantly remember, optimal anxiety can bring out the best in you, but too much of anxiety could be bad.

Below are some ways to break out (and by proxy, expand) of your comfort zone without going too far:

Do everyday things differently. For instance, take a different route to work. You can try a new restaurant; you can also go vegetarian for a week, or a month, and you can try a new operating system. Apparently, re-calibrate your reality. Whether the change you make is large or small, make a change in the way you do things on a day-to-day basis. Look for the perspective that comes from any change, even if it's negative. Don't be put off if things don't work out the way you planned.

Take your time making decisions. Sometimes slowing down is all it takes to make you uncomfortable; especially if speed and quick thinking are prized in your work or personal life. However, slow down and observe what's going on, take your time to interpret what you see, and then intervene. This is like a process of diagnosis and administration of treatment. Sometimes just defending your right to make an educated decision can push you out of your comfort zone. Think, don't just react.

Trust yourself and make snap decisions. This seem to be contradiction, but there's a good reason. Just as there are people who thrive on snap decisions, others are more comfortable weighing all of the possible options several times as possible. Hence, sometimes making a snap call is in order, just to get things moving. More over, doing so can help you kick-start your personal projects and teach you to trust your judgement. Also, it will show you there's fallout to quick decisions as well as slow ones.

Do it in small steps. It takes a lot of courage to break out of your comfort zone. You get the same benefits whether you go in with both feet as you do if you start slow, so don't be afraid to start slow. If you're socially anxious, don't assume you have to muster the courage to ask your crush on a date right away, just say hello to them and see where you can go from there. Identify your fears, and then facethem step by step.

Learn a new language or skill. Learning a new language has multiple benefits, many of which extend to learning any new skill. Connect with people that inspire you, or volunteer with an organization that does great work. Travel, whether you go around the block or across the globe. If you've lived your whole life seeing the world from your front door, you're missing out. Visiting new and different places is perhaps one of the best ways to really broaden your perspectives, and it doesn't have to be expensive or difficult to do. The experiences you have may be mind-blowing or regrettable, but that doesn't matter. The point is that you're doing it, and you're pushing yourself past the mental blocks that tell you to do nothing.

Trying new things could be very difficult. If not, breaking out of your comfort zone would be easy, and you and I would do it all the time. Hence, it's just as important to understand how habits form, and how we can break them as it is to press yourself out of your comfort zone by doing specific things. ...to be concluded tomorrow. 

#DubemickyInspiringGreatnessDaily. Good afternoon. I have no doubt you're very good, and got plans to do something positive and new before the week ends. "If you want something in your life you've never had, you'll have to do something you've never done" - J. D. Houston. Have yourself a nice day.