checking out of the comfort zone

Getting out of your comfort zone is never easy, but a comfort zone is a little like a seedling pot, if you stay in it for too long, you become root bound and you stop growing.

Taking on  a new  career area, relationship or  personal challenge can seem overwhelming, fear magnifies things and distorts our thinking so that fear itself become our sole focus.  Breaking those challenges down is the key.

Establish goals for yourself; think about what you want and where you want to get to.  This may not be easy at first; if you've been in a rut for a while it’s easy to forget what possibilities there are.  If this is the case, start with something small. Ask yourself the miracle question "If I could wave a magic wand and wake up in the morning living my perfect life, what would that look like, feel like, sound like, be like?"  you may need to go through this process a few times before you begin to get a feel for the life you want to live and the goals you want to set.

When you decide on your goal, break it down in to smaller parts.  If your goal is to lose weight, start by cutting out one high calorie item, if your goal is to meet someone for a new relationship, start with saying hello to the person next to you in a cue and build on your social skills.

Instead of thinking about how scary it feels, think about what you need to do to achieve that goal.  Fear and anxiety may be present, but instead of letting them inflate and stand in your way, acknowledge that yes you feel afraid, but put that fear to the side, yes it’s there but it’s not in the way.  Fear may have you tricked into believing it has the power to paralyse you, but that’s a bluff, everyone experiences fear, but some of us just forget that we have the power to re-size and relocate it in our awareness.  Yes you have the power to do that! Cool eh? 

 It may seem that the work required to achieve your goals is too much, however every body of work is made up of smaller component tasks.  Prioritise these tasks and tackle them one at a time.  Little by little you’ll edge closer to your goal.  Each small step you take is empowering, it’s growth.  Not every endeavor you take on will turn out as you may have wanted, but everything you tackle will make your experience of life richer and it will teach you something.

Action is the nemesis of anxiety.  Let go of “why me” and learn to ask “what do I need to do”