What keeps people stuck in their comfort zone. How do you take the leap and step out of your comfort zone?
Most people want certain things in life – a nice home, a comfortable bank account, loving relationships, or a rewarding career. They wish that life was better, or that they had more, or that things somehow were different.
They might even know the steps they need to take to get there – but what stops them? It’s the negative images you have about yourself or the effects of toxic experiences that you haven’t processed yet.
Perhaps this describes you… You stay in a comfort zone of your own making. You maintain flawed beliefs about yourself or you hold onto guilt and self-doubt.
When you try to achieve life goals, these negative images and pre-programmed comfort zones always cancel out your good intentions — no matter how hard you try.
So what if, instead of using willpower as the engine to power your success, you simply let go of your limiting beliefs and change the images you hold about yourself. As long as you keep complaining about your present circumstances, your mind will focus on it.
By continually talking about, thinking about, and writing about the way things are, you are continually reinforcing those very same brain pathways that got you to where you are today.
To change this cycle, focus instead on thinking, talking and writing about the reality you want to create. You must flood your unconscious with thoughts and images of this new reality.
How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone Using Affirmations
One way to do this – one way to stretch your comfort zone – is to bombard your subconscious mind with new images—of a big bank account, a trim healthy body, exciting work, interesting friends and memorable experiences.
The technique we use to do this is affirmations.
Affirmations are simple positive statements declaring specific goals in their completed states. Although they sound rather basic at that level, these empowering mantras have profound effects on the conscious and unconscious mind.
Affirmations are reminders to your unconscious mind to stay focused on your goals and to come up with solutions to challenges and obstacles that might get in the way.
They can also create higher vibrations of happiness, joy, appreciation, and gratitude that then, through the law of attraction, magnetize people, resources, and opportunities to come to you to help you achieve your goals.
Just Lean Into It
Another way to move beyond your comfort zone is to lean into that goal that you want to accomplish.
Not only is this a way to get over your fears and test the waters, but surprising success often happens when you lean into a new activity—when you make yourself open to opportunities and are willing to do what it takes to pursue it further—without a contract, without a promise of success, without any expectation whatsoever.
You just start.
You lean into it.
You see what it feels like.
And you find out if you want to keep going—instead of sitting on the sidelines deliberating, reflecting and contemplating.
Of course, one of the most extraordinary benefits of just leaning into it is that you begin creating momentum—that unseen energy force that brings more opportunity, more resources and more people who can help you at seemingly just the right time for you to benefit the most from them.
Just getting into action on your biggest goals is the most important thing you can do.
When I hold my popular Breakthrough to Success live training, one of the exercises I do is to have attendees identify the one thing that’s keeping them from their biggest goal – whether it’s information they need, someone they need to call, an incomplete they need to clean up first, an old habit or nagging health concern that’s in the way.
Then, I ask them to leave the room for 20 minutes and immediately handle that matter.
Take Action
Write down three things that scare you and commit to doing at least one of them today. Make that phone call, send that email, commit, sign up – get started in whatever way you can.
Do the thing you must do to get out of your comfort zone. @JackCanfield (Click to Tweet!)
Tomorrow do the next thing on your list and the day after…the next.
As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre—and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Jack is America’s #1 Success Coach and wrote the life-changing book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and Jack speaks around the world on this subject. Check out his newest book The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home. Follow Jack at www.jackcanfield.com and sign up for his free resources today!
Image courtesy of Gerd Altmann.
