LTM - 10. Stretch Your Comfort Zone

10. Stretch Your Comfort Zone

People are hardwired to search for comfort; therefore, much of daily life

is centered on familiar patterns and habits. While operating in your

comfort zone feels good, you are not going to advance your life forward

unless you have the courage to push yourself outside your comfort zone.

Think about it. Your comfort zone is where everything feels familiar,

safe, and secure, where you know what to expect, and where you are

content with the status quo. How can you reach greater heights personally

and professionally if you aren’t stretching yourself and growing on a

regular basis?

Best-selling author Brian Tracy said, ―Move out of your comfort zone.

You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable

when you try something new.”

Denis Waitley, another best-selling author and consultant, has trained

numerous U.S. Olympic athletes. He said, “To achieve your dreams you

must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable

with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”

It’s time to get uncomfortable. Let’s begin by doing some self-evaluating.

Do you avoid doing things you know you should do because they make

you feel anxious and awkward, nervous or fearful? What are they?

Contemplate how your life could change if you ventured into the

―discomfort zone.‖ Would you feel better about yourself? Would you

become more respected by your peers and colleagues? Would you have

more self-confidence?

Your first step on the road to greater achievement focuses on the LITTLE

THINGS you know you should do but don’t feel at ease doing. If you push

yourself to do the LITTLE THINGS that thrust you outside your comfort

zone, your confidence will begin to grow.

As you build your self-confidence in doing the LITTLE THINGS, you

slowly build your confidence to do the bigger things. It works this way

for all of us. We start, one step at a time, building our confidence by

successfully completing smaller tasks first.

An experience my son Jake had is a perfect illustration. Jake’s first job

was a bagger at a local grocery store. Jake is an introvert. He is especially

shy around strangers. One day I challenged him to start being friendly to

the customers whose groceries he bagged. The first day he talked to two

customers, the next day five, the next day ten, and by the sixth day he

talked to 50 people. Each day Jake told me about his results and I could

sense his confidence was growing. One day a head cashier told him he

was very good with people—a compliment Jake thought he would never

hear anyone say.

Like Jake, when you first step outside your comfort zone you’ll likely

feel nervous and perhaps even fearful. But unless you are doing

something dangerous or risky, nothing bad is going to happen to you. To

the contrary, that knot in your stomach is your signal that growth and

opportunity lay ahead.

So feel the fear and do it anyway. Dale Carnegie said,

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it . . .

that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered

to conquer fear.

LTM Challenge

Identify one of the LITTLE THINGS in this book where your growth has

been limited because you have remained in your comfort zone. Start in

just one area and as you build confidence in the first one, select a few

more LITTLE THINGS where you can break down your barriers and

improve. Then fire yourself up and do it without further hesitation!

The periods in life when you experience

the greatest growth and advancement are when you

do what you have never done,

go where you have never gone,

push yourself harder than ever before,

and do what’s uncomfortable.