SUCCESS HACK: GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
Getting out of your comfort zone is a pre-requisite to achieving the success you’ve been yearning for.
(How long have you been yearning for? Months, years? Maybe even over a decade?)
Whether your goal is to make your first $100,000, or $1,000,000 as an entrepreneur, staying in the zone of familiarity is the first obstacle to any grand results that you want, that you haven’t achieved… yet.
The human mind is wired to seek familiarity, because our brain is primarily wired for survival. The human subconscious mind is constantly seeking safety.
Safety is tied to certainty, and doing what we already know has brought you to your present state, where no doubt, you’ve been surviving.
Survival is all that the primitive brains wants; enough survival to reproduce, and continue the species.
Of course you want more than that.
But that’s irrelevant, because this primitive wiring has developed for over 200,000 years of modern human history. It helped humans get to where we are.
Achieving success greater than the default life you created requires outsmarting your primitive brain.
This is the definition of real, deep self-development, where no amount of inspiring quotes will help you run into that discomfort, and more importantly, to stay in it!
This is why getting out of your comfort zone is so hard. You’re going against your brain. You’re going against the nature of being human!
Even when you’re unhappy, the state where you’ve been and where you are, are familiar and safe.
This is why comfort is your worst enemy.
“THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, BUT EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN
If you’ve been struggling with achieving your goals, you are required to get out of your comfort zone.
What does it actually mean to get out of your comfort zone? It definitely isn’t just about seeking any type of struggle and discomfort.
This process is a paradox. It’s about getting out of your familiar zone of constant struggle, disappointment, and recurring problems, and leaning into the unfamiliar discomfort that will ultimately give you your desired results.
Comfort is your worst enemy (Best example):
Like many entrepreneurs, I became extremely revenue oriented, and in the process of my early success, I had let go of my standards in physical fitness. I was stress eating, not getting enough exercise, and my once active body became completely sedentary, and gained 20 lbs.
Low energy and lugging around an unfit body became a liability to my focus and productivity.
I knew I had to change, so I hired a nutritionist and a fitness trainer.
My trainer started training me with exercises that shocked the body.
From day 1, it was extremely uncomfortable.
For example, once, he gave me a total exercise of 1000 mountain climbers, 100 burpees, and 10 high-knee run. I had 50 minutes to complete this.
Yesterday, among other exercises, he had me pushing a 100 lbs metal sled across a concrete parking lot.
I felt I could do it the first 3 times.
By 10 rounds, I wanted to give up, and lie on the floor.
If he didn’t push me, I would have call it a day right there. But with him there, I could not do that!
I ended up completing 20 rounds.
Every session with my trainer leaves me burning, exhausted from top to bottom.
Every week when I walk in, I get a new challenge from him, and I never think I can finish them in time, because he increases the difficulty with my fitness progress.
1/4 out of the challenge, I feel that there is no way I could finish it. Yet, he always tells me that I can.
And I always do, in time.
And I repeat the same uncomfortable exercises at least twice during the week, when I’m not seeing him. I always complete all of them.
Would I have ever done such exercises without him?
Never.
The whole time I’m doing the workouts, my mind is telling me that I’m nuts, and that I should immediately stop.
I am reminded of my comfortable couch, and something delicious to eat. Even a glass of wine!
If I could even just get on an elliptical for 20 minutes and call it a day, it’d be great!
But that’d be staying in my comfort zone. Without the discomfort, I’ll only end up maintaining what I already have!
The type of exercise my trainer gives me are things that I have never seen, nor imagined.
I kept going back to him because even after a few weeks, I noticed abs. Even before all my weight gain, at my thinnest form as a runner, I had never seen actual abs on me.
Not to mention, the extra 20 lbs of fat has been melting away rapidly.
The very definition of getting out of your comfort zone is doing something different than what you already have been doing.
It’s the only way you will get your desired results, fast!
Does this sound like it sucks big time?
I’m glad you’re still reading this! You’re already getting comfortable with this uncomfortable concept!
So you may ask, “Okay, I get this concept, but when can I be comfortable again?”
Never.
If you want constant success and growth, you need to learn to become familiar with the growing pains and discomfort.
Once we start achieving success and we want more, we realize that there is no end to experiencing this fire.
Success ultimately has to do with processing the uncomfortable feelings of being in a constant shock of an entirely new challenge… acknowledging the shock, yet actually enjoying the process.
Every type of growth has associated pains. That’s why when you were young and physically developing, you experienced growing pains!
The mindset growth you need for success is to know that such growing pains are a normal part of the process.
It won’t always feel so painful.
As you progress and see results, you will learn to enjoy it! With each success, you become desensitized around getting out of your comfort zone.
This is why I keep going back to my trainer for more, and how I keep growing my business revenue.
This is how I find new ways to expand myself professionally, in my health, and as a mother of two wonderful children as well.
Becoming comfortable with the discomfort is also what is required of you.
Don’t leave this article and go back to your norm! Let’s get out of your comfort zone!
If you want to find out more about what the process of being out of your comfort zone looks and feels like, read my book “Am I There Yet.”
This is an especially helpful book if you’re looking to find significance in the world, and are committed to succeed as an entrepreneur.
