6 Reasons to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone in 2017

I have been teaching, speaking, and writing on personal development, leadership, resiliency, and success principles for over 25 years and have witnessed that the most prominent condition that holds people back in life is the fear of leaving their comfort zone. What is this comfort zone thing all about? The scientific name for the comfort zone is the “Corley Syndrome,” and it is a type of mental conditioning that can cause a person to create, operate, and stay within mental boundaries.

For many this false sense of security eventually leads to complacency, inaction and people stay stuck within this zone.

It is largely a self-created prison. It consists of the collections of cant’s, shouldn’t, must not, and other unfounded beliefs from all the negative self-talk, thoughts, and ideas one has accumulated during his or her lifetime.

Why We Cling to Comfort Zones

There is actually science behind why we stay put in a place of comfort and routine. Human beings (and probably many other animals) benefit physically from the behavioral state where activities and expectations fit a pattern of predictability. Stress levels and anxiety, cortisol levels, and blood pressure, are reduced, and there is a certain degree of security in your comfort zone, which increases your sense of calm, happiness, and safety. There are no surprises, but neither is there the fear that comes with risk.

It’s easy to see how your comfort zone becomes a big part of who you are. Staying where you’re comfortable, at work, or in your personal life, certainly, has its benefits. There’s very little chaos, for the most part, and not much risk is involved in remaining with the tried and true. It’s a place or state-of-mind where you feel safe and in control.

However, if you stay put in the place where nothing changes, nothing is ventured, then you stagnate. Although life is relatively safe inside the place where you feel safest and most in control, it can become pretty mundane, and quite distressing. Taking that well-worn path, instead of the one less traveled, leads to boredom and a relatively unfulfilled way of living.

The Positive Influence of Healthy Stress

Just taking that step outside of your predictable behavior will automatically make your heart beat a little faster, your palms may sweat, and you may experience a ripple of fear. However, that uneasy feeling, that momentary fit of the jitters, is often accompanied by excitement and the anticipation of experiencing something brand-new. You feel a little more alive than normal, and that’s usually a good thing.

It’s long been believed that a state of relative comfort creates a steady level of performance. That being the case, to boost performance, there needs to be a healthy degree of stress. Healthy amounts of anxiety can be very motivating. For instance, many people claim “work stress” as a source of high anxiety. However, the most productive members of your team likely turn those stressors into a challenge. They strive to beat deadlines, rise above and beyond those hurdles, honing their skills, and becoming more self-confident in the process. Intentionally getting outside your comfort zone is one of the best ways to learn, grow, or improve.

“Perfection” Loses its Power

When you step outside of the familiar, you begin to take risks. Inevitably, with risk comes failure, but more importantly, with risk comes greatness. Seeking perfection robs you of taking risks, because of the fear of not being able to master what you’ve set out to do. Your experience, at the very least, will be a lesson. Realizing the power lies in the experience helps take the pressure off and helps you step out a little bit more easily and quickly.

Creativity is Enhanced

Vulnerability goes hand-in-hand with creativity. Creative types, because they are vulnerable, risk rejection daily. Stepping outside of your comfort zone and risking this kind of failure can be difficult. But not stepping out of your comfort zone and not allowing yourself to be vulnerable will significantly restrict your creativity and stop you from developing to your full potential and living the life you want most.

Learning to be open to new thoughts, increasing your curiosity, and expanding your creative intelligence, will help you to become more motivated to explore and step out of your comfort zone. This exploration leads to an eagerness for new experiences. Your creativity takes over, and the accompanying vulnerability becomes less paralyzing and less of a roadblock to stepping outside of your comfort zone. Before you know it both life and learning gets’s easier.

Change Becomes Easier

No matter how much you desire to stay in your comfort zone, life is about change. Inevitably you will be faced and forced to experience an event that shakes your foundation. Many times, when these events happen-loss of a loved one, loss of a job, injury, illness, and the like, you aren’t prepared. In some cases, there’s no way to prepare. You can’t see it coming.

If you’re a person who has stepped outside the predictable, risen to the risk and made peace with the unknown, you’re better equipped to handle life’s changes and transitions. Your life experiences transform you and help you to adapt better and adjust to change.

Risk Advances Growth

Children are born “daredevils,” taking risk after risk without fear of failure. As we grow, we develop that fear, and we learn to avoid it by taking fewer risks, at tremendous cost to our ability to live a richer, more transformative life. It’s just much easier to stay where we are most comfortable.

If you can find a way to take a calculated risk, even if you don’t succeed, you’ll unleash your ability to grow and evolve into a much happier, more fulfilled individual. Accepting that each new risk, each step, carries the potential to fail can release that “Daredevil” within and open up a whole new world of possibilities you may have never thought you’d experience.

Challenge Helps Performance

Sticking to a routine can inhibit your personal and professional performance. After all, evolution comes from change, and if you want to advance and evolve in your career, you must get outside the tried and true and move into that which, for you, is untested. Soaring to new heights involves risk. There are no “failures” because every opportunity to step into the unknown carries a new experience from which to learn and grow.

Repositioning the bar to a higher level will push you to achieve, rising to the occasion and even soaring beyond. The next opportunity to move away from that which is familiar may not be so scary, and your personal evolution has begun to take place.

Confidence Grows

What can be more uplifting to your personal confidence and self-worth than succeeding at something new? Mastering a skill which will serve you well, in work or your everyday life, just makes you feel that much more accomplished.

Mind Your Stress Level

Stepping into the unknown can be paralyzing for some and overwhelming for most. Not recognizing the degree of pressure you undertake by stepping outside of the familiar and comfortable can result in a whole slew of problems. For some, the stress of a new challenge can simply be too much, causing decreased productivity and arresting the creative flow, the opposite result of that which was intended. Too much anxiety and stress can adversely impact your health.

If you feel overwhelmed by moving outside of your comfort zone, take baby steps. Make small changes at first, building on these changes until you’re able to go beyond and step further into the unknown.

Begin by trying a new food, take a class in something that’s a little outside your norm. Go to a part of town you’ve never been to before and check out the sights, or get out of the city completely and enjoy an entirely new vista.

Take the Challenge

Learning to step outside one’s comfort zone is important and a universal factor in personal growth. In an increasingly competitive, global and accelerated world, those who are willing to take risks, step out of their comfort zone, and into the discomfort of uncertainty will be those who will reap the biggest rewards.

You truly don’t know what you’re capable of until you step outside your comfort zone and free yourself from what holds you back. As you step further and further outside of your comfort zone, you will be opening yourself up to new experiences, facing challenges head-on, and learning to live a bigger, fuller, and more meaningful life. By discovering the power, you possess to change your life and learning how to tap into it; your life will never be the same. You will feel a sense of freedom like you’ve never felt before.

So here’s my questions for you. What are you waiting for? Why not think about something you always wanted to try and give it a shot? Where will you be in 5 years if you don’t push beyond your current boundaries? Where could you be if you do? Why wait any longer?

Why not step outside your comfort zone and make 2017 your best year yet?