5 Top Tips on How to Stretch Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Are You Stuck in a Comfort Zone?

Sometimes we get so comfortable in our lives that we put on our cosy slippers and forget that there’s a World beyond our current routine, that has so much more to offer than what we may be settling for.

Other times, we’re simply stuck in a place that doesn’t feel at all comfortable but it’s still become our comfort zone, simply because we’re too fearful to make a change.

When we expand ourselves beyond our limits, we grow, we learn and we open up new opportunities in our life.

 

 

 

Here are my top 5 tips on how to push beyond your current boundaries:

1. Start to take some small risks so that you get used to feeling some fear and pushing yourself to do something new. 
   • Join a new Social Group on your own. Maybe starting a new hobby or going to a ‘meet up’ group or a debating society.
   • Wear an outfit that’s out of your ‘normal’ style and wear it with confidence
   • Step out of your comfort zone at work – take on a new project or maybe take time to stop and chat with some colleagues that you don’t often communicate with.
2. Start to notice discomfort. When you feel uncomfortable about something, what do you do? Do you retreat back to your comfort zone? If so, it’s time to Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!
   • You may think you’re the only one who feels so fearful but the truth is, when we face new challenges, we all feel some fear. The difference is that some of us push beyond the fear and some of us shrink back to our comfy slippers…
   • Push yourself to take action – when we take action regardless of our fears, we really do start to expand our horizons.
3. Look for all the positive reasons why it would be good to push yourself out of the comfort zone and the boundaries limiting your life.
   • Consider and write down all the benefits that making a change would bring you and start to focus on these.
4. Write down your goal – something you want to achieve and then break it down into achievable chunks.
   • We often look at the ‘end goal’ and feel that it would be impossible to achieve and yet when we break it down into much smaller steps, it starts to feel achievable.
   • “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – one step at a time and who knows where you’ll find yourself!
5. Have dreams – Create your Dream Vision Board.
   • If you don’t know what will excite you, you won’t notice the opportunities that present themselves.
   • By simply acknowledging our dreams, we start to open our hearts and minds to new possibilities in our life…

How are you expanding your life? I’d love to know so please leave me a comment. Or, maybe you’re stuck in your comfort zone? How comfortable is it really? I’d really love to hear from you and understand what’s holding you back…

 

Over the last 18 months, I’ve been inspired by some amazing people as I’ve travelled my own journey and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Yes, at times it’s been scary – particularly when I decided to give up my ‘day job’ and jump off the hamster’s wheel. However, it’s been THE BEST thing I’ve done. My health has dramatically improved, I spend time with my family and I’m doing things I never imagined I would, when I started my journey of re-discovery.

I was VERY uncomfortable in my ‘comfort zone’ and I can’t believe I stayed there for so long. Pushing beyond my self-limitations has been a roller coaster ride. There’s often a fine line between our fear and pure exhilaration and we let that fine line hold us back and yet once we take the first step, it can be easier than we ever imagined.

Our imaginations are powerful tools that we can use to help us or to hold us back. What we think is what we experience. How Are Your Thoughts Influencing Your Life?

I’m lucky to have met some amazing bloggers in my ‘personal growth journey’ and although there are many I could list here, the 3 who’ve inspired me the most and who really have tested themselves and stretched beyond their comfort zones and ‘felt the fear and done it anyway’, are:

https://outanabout.com/ – Miriam has published some fabulous articles, started a travel Facebook Group and wow – posted some wonderful songs that she sings.

https://osyth.org/ – Osyth has stretched beyond the comfort of her amazing home in France and moved to a completely new Continent. Nothing holds her back.

https://watchingthedaisies.com/ Brigid has published her amazing memoir. I don’t often read a book twice but reading about how Brigid has moved beyond illness to help others and to travel to some amazing places was so inspiring I had to read it twice!