How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone | Jack Canfield

Hi there, I'm Jack Canfield here with an interesting question for you. What would you do if you knew you would not fail if success were absolutely assured? What steps would you take today to bring about the life of your dreams? You know, most people want certain things in life. A nice home, a comfortable bank account, a rewarding career, vibrant health and loving relationships. They wish that life was better, or that they could have more, or that things were somehow different. They might even know the steps they need to take to get there. But something's stopping them. Now, what keeps people stuck in their comfort zone? Driving with the brakes on? Well, I'll tell you. It's the negative images you have about yourself or the effects of toxic experiences that you haven't processed yet. Pretty much. Perhaps this describes you staying in a comfort zone entirely of your own making. Maintaining flawed beliefs about yourself, or holding on to guilt and self doubt when you try to achieve your life goals. These negative images and pre programmed comfort zones that you find yourself stuck in always seem to cancel out your good intentions no matter how hard you try. So what if instead of using willpower as the engine to power your success and you simply release the brakes by letting go of your limiting beliefs and changing the images you hold about yourself? You see, unfortunately, most people just continue to live in their same old comfort zone and then complain about their experience rather than doing something about it. And by continually complaining about, thinking about and writing about the way things are, you're continually reinforcing those same neural pathways in your brain that that got you to where you are today and are going to keep you stuck there if you don't change them. So to change this cycle, you've got to focus instead on thinking, talking and writing about the reality you want to create. You've got to flood your unconscious with thoughts and images of your desired new reality. And one way to do this, one way to stretch your comfort zone, is to bombard your subconscious and unconscious minds with new thoughts and images of what you want. Images of a bigger bank account, a trim, healthy body, exciting work, interesting friends, and memorable experiences. You see, one of the most powerful techniques we use to do this is called affirmations. I want to talk about that with you. An affirmation is simply a statement that affirms your desired goal has already been achieved. An example would be if your goal was to make 150,000 a year income. Your affirmation could be, I am so happy and grateful that I'm now easily earning 150,000 a year. If your goal was to complete a marathon, your affirmation could be, I'm so happy and proud to be running across the finish line at the New York City Marathon. And after saying each affirmation, you should then close your eyes and briefly imagine running across the finish line at the marathon or looking at your tax return and says, your income is $150,000 now. Another way to move beyond your comfort zone is to simply lean into that goal you want to accomplish. Not only is this a way to get over your fears and test the waters, but surprisingly, success often comes when you lean into a new activity, when you make yourself open to opportunities and are willing to do whatever it takes to pursue it further. Without a contract, without a promise of success, without any expectation, whatever you just start, you lean into it. You see what it feels like, and you find out if you want to keep going instead of sitting on the sidelines, deliberating, reflecting, and contemplating. I want to tell you a quick story about this. I was recently with the actor Jeff Bridges, who is, you know, Academy Award winner, nominated many times, one of the most nominated men and a friend of mine. And we're looking over his career, and I didn't know this about him until very recently. We're doing a retrospective of his life at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. And it turns out he wasn't sure he really wanted to be an actor. His father, Lloyd Bridges, had been an actor on Sea Hunt. They'd been a couple times he'd brought them in as children to act in the series, but he wasn't really sure he wanted to do that. And so what he did was he said, I'm gonna just lean into it for a couple of years, try on some parts in some movies and see if I like it. And after a couple of years, he said, you know, I really love this, but. But he wasn't sure when he started, so you don't have to know for sure. Just lean into something, try it on, see if it works for you. Don't freak out if you don't have instant success, but just lean into it. Now, of course, one of the most extraordinary benefits of just leaning into it is that you begin creating momentum, just like Jeff Bridges did with his career. It's that unseen energy force that brings more opportunity, more resources, and more people who can help you. It seems seemingly just the right time for you to benefit the most from them. So just getting into action on your biggest goals is one of the most important things you can do. You know, when I hold my popular Breakthrough to Success program, one of the exercises I do is to have attendees identify the one thing that's keeping them from their biggest goal, Whether it's information they need that they don't have, something they don't know how to do. Maybe it's someone they need to call, they're afraid to call them. Maybe it's an old incomplete they need to clean up first, or an old habit or a nagging health concern that's in the way. And then I ask them to leave the room for 20 minutes and immediately take a step that will move them toward handling that. They might make a phone call. They might make an appointment in the gym, in the hotel that night, or for a massage, or they might set a goal, whatever it is. I mean, I've had people literally call up a friend of theirs and make an appointment for them to see an accountant that they never had before. And as a result of that, their whole business transformed. Just take action right now. And then they had to come back and report about it so that they were being held accountable by the whole group. So here's the homework. I want you to do, something you can do today. I want you to write down three things that scare you, three things that you know you need to do but you're scared to do, and commit to doing at least one of them today. Make that phone call or send that email. Make, make that commitment. Sign up for that class, whatever it is. Get started in whatever way you can because that first step will then create momentum and will propel you to the next step. The next step. To the next step. To the next step. And as I often tell people, if you want to get from New York to California, all you have to do is head west and take one step, then the next step, then the next step, then the next step. Now, obviously, most of you are not going to walk to California. If you were to do that, eventually, after many months, you would actually get here. So just get started. So do the thing you must do to get out of your comfort zone. Now, tomorrow, do the next thing on your list and the day after that, the next. And remember, I would like you to leave a comment below about the one thing you're going to do today and then go and do that thing right now and I'll be sure to follow up with you and keep you motivated and keep you on track. So thanks again for watching. And remember, nothing will change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, 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 resources on how to step out of your comfort zone, make sure to visit my website@jackcampfield.com.