Please keep in mind that this website is supported by affiliate links to products we recommend. When you buy something, we recommend, we may get an affiliate commission — but it never affects your price or what we pick. And we would NEVER recommend something that we do not trust or believe in.

Hi All,

The main way you grow is by taking risks – by stepping out of your comfort zone. Taking the first step is often a difficult thing to do.

Comfort zones are actually about fear, not comfort. When you get over fearing the concept of fear, you’ll enjoy taking small risks and growing through the process. This article will explore the ways in which you can overcome your fear and find success.

How can you first understand fear, so that you can overcome it?

Fear is an innate, natural response by humans and animals triggered by anticipating potential danger or harm. It’s strictly activated by instinct, to protect you from threats and to keep you safe.

When you are faced with any perceived risk, your body will undergo psychological and physiological changes, including heightened alertness and increased heart rate, which prepares you for your response: freeze, fight or flight.

Identifying common fears

The more common fears include rejection, failure, change, the unknown, making mistakes and public speaking. These fears may stem from your desire to avoid a negative judgement or outcome, and their intensity varies from one person to the next.

Some fears are easily recognizable and can stem from trauma that happens in our past. For Instance, I fell out of a tree when I was young, not a bad fall, but it knocked me unconscious. I wasn’t injured, my father carried me into the house and I woke up on our couch with my parents looking down on me. From then on, I would get scared when climbing up on something. Before that incident I would climb up on anything like a monkey and with no fear. Afterward, I was always afraid of falling. 

As an adult, I would challenge myself to do things like ride high roller coasters or go up on high buildings in order to defeat my fears. It ended with a skydiving trip that was amazing and a true bucket list activity that made me better for having done it.

Recognizing fear’s impact on your personal growth

Fear impacts your personal growth by holding you back from pursuing your goals, embracing change and exploring new opportunities. Fear creates resistance and discomfort when you try to step out of your comfort zone.

Overcoming your fear is vital for your personal development. It will allow you to build resilience, expand your horizons and discover your full potential.

What are the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone?

There are numerous benefits to stepping outside your comfort zone. You can challenge yourself to grow beyond your fears and overcome them.

Boost your self-confidence

When you accomplish a goal, you boost your self-confidence. This is especially true if you challenged yourself, worked hard and accomplished the goal. That boost may push you to accomplish more and higher goals.

Expand your world

When you step from your comfort zone, you will learn new things, see new places, meet new people and try new experiences. All these things expand your full awareness of the world and your place in it. Stepping out may also introduce you to new areas of study or interests that you’d like to explore further.

Build your resilience

Challenging yourself and moving outside your original comfort zone may build on your faculties of resilience. You’ll become more confident in handling occasional failures and become comfortable with higher levels of uncertainty, stress and anxiety.

Improve decision making and problem-solving skills

Stepping from your comfort zone means you must use critical thinking skills, make good decisions and solve new problems. This process will stimulate those skills as you think more creatively and find the most effective solutions.

When you embrace new situations, you are challenging yourself to not only learn, but to adapt. Whether you master new technology, learn new languages or acquire new skills, this learning and growth process enhances your life both personally and professionally.

I hear about it all the time, people past the age of retirement and going out and beginning a new career. The 85 year-old grandmother that went back to college and got her law degree; and then passed the BAR exam to become a licensed Lawyer. The retired bus mechanic that got his real estate license and became a successful realtor. 

The only limits we have are those we place on ourselves.

Conclusion

When you turn fears into challenges, you can help yourself to overcome those fears. In many situations like this, you may ask yourself two questions:

1. What does this challenge require me to do?
2. Do I possess all the resources I need to deal with it?

If you end up determining that you can’t overcome the fear/accept the challenge, that’s considered a type of “threat” response, and you will not be able to perform as well when you’re stressed.

If you determine that you CAN overcome the fear/accept the challenge, that will make it a challenge for you. Now you’re ready to take that first step outside your personal comfort zone, and you can start today to overcome fear.

Respectfully,

Mario

Photo by  Photo by Kamil Pietrzak on Unsplash

Affiliate link: BOXABLE Premium Modular Housing Solutions, 

The Future of Housing, Delivered to You: https://www.boxabl.com/order?ref=yzu5nge 

Reference: https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/leaving-your-comfort-zone/