Why You Should Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

What makes you nervous?

Is it heights? Public speaking? Traveling? Asking for a raise?

Whatever it is, know that we all get nervous. But, what we don’t all do is step out of our comfort zone. When you do, there’s nothing that feels better when you’ve accomplished or faced your fears.

The only antidote for overwhelm is action. When you take action and step out of your comfort zone, you’re able to feel a sense of accomplishment, and often feelings that you’ve never felt before. Isn’t that what life is all about?

Think about your first kiss when you were younger. The build up sucks, and you’re scared, you're not sure if you’ll do it right. Then, when you finally experience it, you feel like you’re on cloud 9.

That’s the feeling that many of us just let slip away as we get older, because we stay in our comfort zones. We go about each day, with the same routine, just putting in the time. But, when we step out of our comfort zone, we’re able to experience life the way it was meant to be.

One memory that always comes to mind for me was when I built up enough courage and went paragliding in South Africa back in 2017. I’m terrified of heights. So, my first reaction was “this is the last thing I’d want to experience”. But, in the back of my mind I kept telling myself “If I don’t try it, I’ll always be wondering what if”. “What if’s” are what we look back on when we’re old and grey. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that. I don't want to grow old wishing that I tried something when I had the chance. I want to look back on my life and know that I put myself out there. When it came to paragliding I knew I had to try it. I had to face my fears because I knew I would feel so good about myself if I did it. So, there I was standing on the side of a cliff, with a guy tied to my back, and he tells me, “Okay, we’re going to run as fast as we can together towards the edge of the cliff, on 3-2-1 GO!”. I remember running as fast as I could and within 5 seconds we took off. After about 15 seconds I started to loosen my grip and opened my eyes for the first time. I remember it being one of the best feelings of my life. I was still scared but it felt incredible. We floated over a town into the sunset and then landed on a nearby beach. Wow! What a thrill. It’s a memory I’ll think about for the rest of my life. I felt so alive!

Think about it. When’s the last time you’ve felt this way? If you can’t quite remember, then it’s been too long. There’s many things that we can do each and every day to feel accomplished and whole. There’s so many things that we can do to feel on top of the world but often pass up because we’re nervous. So, instead we sit there and never know. Those “what if’s” begin to pop up in our heads. We allow so many potential great moments to pass by because we’re scared, or we’re nervous, or we’re worried about failing.

I promise you, if there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the past 10-15 years, it’s that good things happen when you give it a chance. Don’t worry about failure. When something doesn’t work out, it just means that you’re one step closer to knowing what does work. If you’re not 100% happy with where you’re at or what you’re doing, then don’t settle. Try something new. You can still keep your full-time job and try other things that might actually make you happy.

Many of us live as if we’re going to live forever. We settle for so many things because it’s the “safe thing to do” or because someone else told us to do it. For instance, you can still lose a “safe job”. Nothing is for certain. So, why settle for it? And we certainly don’t live forever. So, why do we live like we do?

People are so worried about the future and the outcome of everything that they don’t enjoy the present. They end up living as if they’re going to be around forever, but then end up dying later on in life having never lived.

You have it in you to be whoever you want to be in life and to experience things that you’ve only ever dreamed of. Allow yourself to enjoy every moment you’re given. Step out of your comfort zone and test those boundaries. You’ll be blown away at how good you feel. Don’t allow those “what if’s” to set in and control you. You’re the driver of your destiny. Take control by taking action.

When’s the last time you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone?