5 Tips to Avoiding the Comfort Zone | Jack Canfield

Lately, I've been talking a lot about letting go of self doubt, building confidence and taking action despite your fears. It all comes down to finding the courage to move beyond your comfort zone and embrace the unknown. And this kind of skill is more important now than ever, because thriving in the midst of a global crisis is almost certainly going to require you to step out of your comfort zone in at least one area of your life, and maybe even more so today. I'd like to give you five useful tips on how to do Just. Now, just recently, like most of you, when the coronavirus pandemic forced me and our company to stop doing business as usual, we had to step out of our comfort zone and start doing a lot of things differently. As you probably know, we're primarily a live training and speaking company. Well, with the orders to not gather in groups, to social distance and for everyone in most states to shelter at home, that made it impossible to do what we normally do. So we had to step out of our comfort zone and do a lot of things we never had to do before. First, we had to convince hundreds of people to transfer their deposits for trainings to trainings at a later date or to switch into one of our online programs. Second, we had to develop ways to provide powerfully impactful experiential trainings online. We had to master how to use ZOOM to break people into partners and small groups so that we could do the kinds of exercises we would do in a large training in a ballroom of a hotel. And I had to learn how to deliver high energy keynote experiences for clients who still needed to motivate and train their people who were now working remotely from home. Such call, I trained more than 4,000 people for a major international company with participants online from all over the world. Now, based on my new interest in the power of essential oils to facilitate increasing the immune system, promoting wellness and healing, and accelerating removing emotional blocks of success, I also decided to join a network marketing company that distributes and educates people about these oils and their uses and learning how to use the oils, educate others about them and share the opportunity with others. That was also new to me and required me to step out of my comfort zone many times a week for the first few months. But the health rewards and the financial rewards have both been phenomenal. By the way, if you'd like to learn more about the amazing properties of these oils, just drop a quick email to oilsackcampfield.com and we'll get in touch with you. The good news is that everything we did that was awkward a few months ago is now familiar, easy and comfortable. And the truth is, everything that I've ever done that has led to greater and greater success and has been uncomfortable at first. Teaching high school, teaching college, conducting seminars for teachers, consulting for corporations, being interviewed on TV shows like the Today show and Oprah's Super Soul Sunday. Knowing that millions of people were watching, speaking in countries like Russia, Iran, Thailand, and Japan. Very different cultures. Every one of those things was difficult at first. Stepping out of my comfort zone uncomfortable. But they got easier every time I did it. And for many people, stepping out of their comfort zone is where their best intentions fail them. They know what they want to accomplish with their lives, but the idea of taking that first step outside of their comfort zone feels so overwhelming. They choose to remain where they are and then justify their inaction by telling themselves that they just don't have what it takes. But of course you have what it takes. Everyone is born with the capacity to make their dreams a reality. If you can see it, you can achieve it. But to do that, you have to take action. And every action requires taking that first step to make it happen. That often means doing something new, something uncomfortable. And so here are some tips on how to do just that. Now, my first recommendation is Start small. Of course, making a huge leap into the unknown is going to be daunting. You'll find it far easier to get started by taking one small step in the direction you want to go. For example, if you want to run a marathon, you don't start by walking out the door and running a marathon. You start small by buying yourself some good running shoes and maybe starting with a couch to 5K app that you can get on your phone, or committing to jogging for 20 minutes a few days a week, and then you work your way up from there. If you want to change your career, you don't start by just quitting your current job before you even have a plan for what you do next. It's a lot smarter to start by doing some research about the new career you'd like to explore, talking to people who work in that field, and learning what skills and expertise you should develop in order to become hireable in that industry, and then taking steps toward acquiring those skills and that expertise, and then reaching out to more people in that industry and making connections that could lead to your dream job. And each of these small steps will take you closer to where you want to go without completely overwhelming you or putting you in a position of serious risk. Now, the next tip would be to get Comfortable with being uncomfortable. Because that's what moving beyond your comfort zone means. It means doing something that makes you feel uncomfortable in some way. And it's uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar. You're simply not used to it. For example, here's an activity I get my breakthrough to success students to do so do it along with me. Now, fold your hands like this. Notice which thumbs on top. Notice how that feels. Now unfold your hands and refold them so the other thumbs up on top. Don't just move the thumbs up. Remove all the fingers so the other thumbs on top. Notice how that feels. Now, for most people, it feels uncomfortable, awkward, weird, right? Feels somehow strange and wrong. Not you. And yet this is exactly what you need to do in order to get from where you are to where you want to go. You've got to be willing to be uncomfortable. Whenever you do something new, it's going to feel like this kind of awkward and weird and uncomfortable. And you've got to learn how to become okay with feeling like that. Because here's the thing, it doesn't last very long. If you were to keep your hands folded in the new position for a minute or so, it would stop feeling uncomfortable. It would fade into the background. So you have to be willing to go through the uncomfortable stage and the awkward stage of doing something new in order to accomplish your goals and get where you need to be. You may find it uncomfortable at first, but that's okay. That's the nature of growth. Your nervous system is designed to tell you when something is not normal. It tells you something's off. Now think of this. If you were to come into your apartment tonight and the couch was upturned and all the cushions were on the floor and some of them were ripped open, and all the drawers in your house were open, and you went into your bedroom and you found the mattress off your bed and everything's turned out of the drawers on the floor. Now, you knew someone was there looking for something, right? And the secret code you had or your gold bars or whatever. And so it would alert you as soon as you walked in, you'd be on high alert. Are they still here? Is it dangerous? Should I go and call the cops before I go in there? Should I leave now? That's important. Whenever you see something that's not normal or feel something that's not normal, your nervous system goes into high alert. It has some survival value. But normally that high alert status, that discomfort, is something we don't want to experience. It's something our nervous system is trying to protect us from. But just because something is unfamiliar, that doesn't always mean it's dangerous. 99% of the time today it's not. So when I was learning to ski, I was very uncomfortable at first. I didn't learn until I was an adult and everything about the experience was unfamiliar to me and it made me very uncomfortable and apprehensive. You know, on the hill around me, I could see all of these little three and four year old kids who were going down the hill with no fear and discomfort at all. They didn't know they were supposed to feel fear. They were just all charged up on the adrenaline rush of the whole experience. They were able to learn to ski 10 times faster than I ever would because they were able to get comfortable with that new experience that much more quickly. Now, my third tip on how to step out of your comfort zone is to practice often and take small steps in different areas of your life. If you're normally a meat and potatoes kind of person, try eating more vegetarian dishes and more Asian noodle based dishes. For example, buy an ingredient you've never cooked with and try a new dish. Order food from a restaurant you've never tried before. Now, if you normally spend your evening sitting on the couch watching tv, turn the TV off one night a week and watch watch a TED talk or do a free yoga workout on YouTube instead. Or learn a new technology like how to do a group zoom call with some friends. We just had a 30 minute Zoom happy birthday celebration call from my wife with eight of our friends. It was really cool. So if you normally avoid doing your taxes until the last minute, why not commit to spending 15 minutes once a week reviewing your numbers every time you take one small step outside your comfort zone in any area of your life? This it shows you that you can take that leap and survive it and learn from it. And that will give you the confidence you need to take even bigger steps outside of your comfort zone. And my fourth tip is to visualize yourself taking that step and succeeding at it before you actually take any sort of action. Because as you've heard me say many times, your body can't tell the difference between a real event and a vividly imagined event. So if you visualize yourself doing something in clear detail, your subconscious mind will think you actually did it. And that will deepen your conviction and faith that you can do it and will actually make you more comfortable doing it when you actually go to do it in real life. When I was a member of the association for Supervision and Curriculum development. I was a teacher and I was a consultant in education. And I went to one of their big conferences because it was a great leads list for assistant superintendents in charge of curriculum that could hire me to come in and talk to their teachers. And at one event, there was a keynote speaker who spoke to 10,000 people. I mean, imagine that, 10,000 people in the audience in this big convention center in New Orleans. And I thought, I want to be on stage speaking to audiences of this size. Now. When the keynote speech was over and everyone had left the ballroom, I went up on stage where the podium still was standing, and I stood there looking out at all of the empty seats. There were 10,000 seats out there as far as you can see. I stood there on stage and pretended to give a talk for about five. I imagined all of the people sitting there and taking notes. I walked back and forth on the stage imagining how it would feel, and I imagined a standing ovation at the end. It was a very powerful way of getting comfortable with the idea of being in front of that many people. Since then, I've spoken to many audiences that size and some even larger. But the first time I did it for real was made so much easier by the fact that I'd already visualized myself doing it on that stage in New Orleans. Now, finally, I encourage you to remember that fear is simply fantasized experiences appearing real. Those fears you may feel around stepping into the unknown and doing something that makes you uncomfortable, they're all imaginary. They're all based on something that hasn't happened. You fear you might fail, but it's just likely that you will succeed. So why not focus on that possible outcome instead? By focusing on the positive, you're going to be far more likely to make your decision. Desired outcome of reality. And even if you do fail, so what? Remember, mistakes are how you learn. They're not going to kill you. They're valuable stepping stones on your journey to success. Or maybe you fear that someone might laugh at you or criticize you or reject you. And again, I say, so what? Remember this. What other people think about you is none of your business, and it isn't your problem. So don't let what other people may or may not think about you stop you from from moving toward your goals. Just do the best you can. Celebrate your successes, learn from your mistakes, and move on. That's how you make consistent progress toward your goals. So those are my tips on how to step out of your comfort zone and become comfortable with being uncomfortable. So this week, I challenge you to take one small step outside of your personal comfort zone. And this can be in any area of your life. But it has to be something that feels just a wee bit uncomfortable and maybe even scares you a little. Because the more you flex that muscle, the stronger it will grow and become and the easier it will be for you to make even bigger steps and take even bigger risks. And that's going to greatly accelerate your progress towards your goals. All right, so let's start living outside our comfort zone and see your life take off to the next level. And let me know what you think in the comments section. Thanks again for watching. And remember, you can achieve anything you you can imagine in life. It just takes you taking that first step outside your comfort zone. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. And for some additional exercises and tools for self improvement, please make sure to visit my website@jackcamphill.com and also check out the links in the description below.