In this episode…

The comfort zone is such an easy place to hang out. You know the one – that little box in which we feel comfortable and safe.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well…. Not necessarily…

The problem with the comfort zone is that it doesn’t allow room for growth or evolution. Through trying to avoid our own fears or anxiety, you’re short-changing yourself!

What’s just outside the comfort zone? Think Personal Growth; Fulfillment; Creating an Impact; and both Personal and Business Success.

So step into your fear and join us beyond the comfort zone!

So let’s dive in!

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Transcript

[00:00:00]Amanda: [00:00:44] Hi, and welcome to episode seven of the Heart Driven Hustle podcast. We’re your hosts, Amanda and Kingsley, and today we’re diving into mindset. Specifically, we’re talking about the comfort zone. You know the one… that little box we [00:01:00] feel comfortable and safe… and why we need to step beyond it.

So, what is the comfort zone and why do we like to hang out there?

Well, the comfort zone is such an easy place to hang out.   It’s obviously not a physical place, but more a psychological construct that defines the routine of our daily life.

Now that comfort zone implies familiarity and security and doesn’t necessarily involve stretching or taking any risks.

Sounds pretty great. Doesn’t it?

Well, not necessarily… and the problem with the comfort zone is that it doesn’t allow room for growth or evolution. So through trying to avoid our own fears or anxiety, you’re actually shortchanging yourself. And in fact, what you’ll find, is that you’re often left behind when you’re hanging out of the comfort zone.

So, what we need to do is actually you step outside it. And yes I know our comfort zone is familiar and where we have a sense of control. Interestingly, though, the control that we feel we have [00:02:00] here is merely just an illusion that our ego lets us think we have. We have choice, but not control. And we need to bust out of our comfort zone to learn who we really are.

So I want you to do a little visualization.

Now, if you imagine a circle, so this is your comfort zone. Everything that you currently have in your life exist within the circle. So I’m talking about your family, your career, your health, your relationships, anything that you have, like I said, sits inside that particular circle.

Now consider the things that you desire to have in your life, but you don’t have just yet, these are the things outside your comfort zone. And this means that you’re going to have to do something different in order to achieve them. Now, the level of difficulty that you perceive in obtaining these items can be illustrated by the physical distance from the circle.

So what I mean by this, is something that is easy to obtain, will sit just outside that circle, so your comfort zone. Something that is more challenging, [00:03:00] will be a further distance from the circle and further outside your comfort zone that you must venture in order to achieve it.

So, for example, you may have dreams of quitting your current nine to five one day and working for yourself. Now, if you continue on your current trajectory of your daily grind and do nothing different, then it’s highly unlikely a new career is simply going to just land in your lap. I’ve never seen it happen and, well, if it does, let me know! However, if you actively start making some changes to start putting that new business idea into motion… yes, you need to step outside your comfort zone. Then what that means is it’s actually starting to move into the realm of possibilities.

There’s actually a really great quote by John Augustus Shedd, which sums up the idea of stepping beyond your comfort zone perfectly. He says, “a ship in the Harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for”. So to put that into perspective, if you [00:04:00] consider a boat sitting in the Harbor, it’s going to be safe.

There’s no waves, there’s nothing that’s going to potentially sink it. But, well, what’s the point in that a ship is not meant to be kept in the Harbor – it’s out to be sailing the seas and venturing beyond which is what you need to do too.

So, this is why we should be pushing our boundaries to discover our true potential. Now there’s another great quote. I’m all about the quotes today. So “the mind once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions”, and this is one by Ralph Waldo Emmerson. So this is something in particular, that we have found on our own personal growth journey as well. And it becomes really addictive once you start  going down that path of stretching yourself growth and continually doing personal development.

You want to continue expanding your mind. I mean, this is quite a skill in itself. It’s about being comfortable with being uncomfortable through continual learning.

And one of my mentors would always say, [00:05:00] if you’re not growing, then you’re dying. And I know it sounds a little bit harsh, but when you consider it in perspective, I certainly know what I’d rather be doing.

Let me ask you a question… Have you ever driven to work and wondered how you got there?

I know I’ve done that in the past… and the reason being is that it becomes such a familiar route – the way that we get to work each and every day – is that this repetition lulls the brain to sleep. So it’s really important that we do change things up, even if it is something so small as simply taking a different route or a different direction to get to work that day. It really helps to keep our brains active.

So this brings me to the next point – being field as a human being. And I know this sounds quite philosophical, but if we consider the idea that personal growth is closely linked the idea of fulfillment. It’s actually really surprising to see the number of people who simply settle for close enough or [00:06:00] mediocrity.

You know the ones.. They’re the ones who wake up to the sound of the alarm clock. They hit snooze – they’re not jumping out of bed in the mornings.

hey caffeinate themselves in order to provide the energy they need to get to the jobs that they don’t necessarily like. They’re there counting the hours until the day is done and they’re having quite a few more coffees in order just to pass it time and it’s all before they head home and then collapse with an oomph into the sofa and sit there, scrolling social media as a way to escape and find a more appealing life.

The thing is though, that they not feeling fulfilled by this existence, but they don’t do anything about it. Because it’s easier to hang out in the comfort zone than it is to do something more.

Why wouldn’t you want to step into the fear and do a few things different to create a much more fulfilling existence?

Which brings me to my next point… it’s about creating momentum and entering your zone of genius. When you start working outside your comfort zone, you [00:07:00] start to create this natural momentum.

The little small wins that you’re having, they start to build up and combine with each other to create major gains. And you’ll start noticing that as though that your in perpetual motion. You’ll start to notice your confidence building you’ll feel more focused and your self belief will grow too. You’ll actually start to question how you ever doubted yourself, which brings me to the idea of your zone of genius.

And this is where you’re operating at your highest capacity. You’re simply in flow and this is where you start to make things happen and you’re seeing results and you’re becoming much more conscious and deliberate in your thinking and your feelings and your actions as well. This is really the area that you want to get yourself into because this is when things are going to start happening for you.

So, how do you get there? Well, we need to eliminate that self doubt and you do this through stretching yourself and stepping outside your comfort zone.

[00:08:00] The truth is there is no quick fix. It is a case of trial and error. It’s finding out what works for you, and then starting to build upon that.

Now our minds can be a very tricky thing. They can either work with you or against you. And if you consider our primitive brain, this wants to keep us safe and automatically reverts to fight or flight mode. So how this translates to the comfort zone, if you consider the circle, ie your comfort zone, your brain is going to want to keep you feeling safe and secure sitting inside there.

Anything that challenges that, ie. Stepping outside your comfort zone, is going to automatically cause you to freeze.

The knee-jerk reaction of your primitive brain is to say, ‘Nope, not for us. We’re quite happy where we are. There’s no need to step beyond. Let’s just simply stay here because I fear what is going on outside.’

Our mind will come up with numerous [00:09:00] reasons why we shouldn’t do something and they’re not all logical. It thinks that it’s protecting us, but in reality, it is holding us back and can impact our ability to stretch beyond our comfort zone.

What you need to remember is that you are in control. You can start to rewire the way in which you automatically react and start to turn your inaction into action. In fact, you’ll actually start to learn from the obstacles and the challenges that you face along the way.  You’ll learn how to overcome this adversity and they will then become learning points. You’ll start to bounce back quicker and you’ll have more confidence the next time, time, step outside your comfort zone. In fact, you’ll naturally start to step beyond with less hesitation after each time.

Now the other reason that we want to actually step beyond this comfort zone is that we can create a profound impact on others.

Now you heard in our last episode that like attracts, like, and we all want to be around [00:10:00] people that we admire. So, I mean, who doesn’t want to be the best version that they can be. And what you’ll find is that the more that you start to step outside your comfort zone, you will start to inspire others to do exactly the same.

So you’ll become a magnet for these types of people.   The more of these people that you attract into your life, the quicker you begin to attain your own goals, whether this be professional or personally, and if we look at this in a business perspective, now your success and your ability to make a positive impact in the lives of others is actually dependent on you stepping outside your own comfort zone.

You’ll actually find yourself becoming a role model and a mentor to others as well. And naturally start to encourage your own clients to do exactly the same as a result.  You’ll become this flashing bacon of success and attract more and more likeminded individuals towards you, which is pretty cool, hey!

So there you have it. Today was all about [00:11:00] mindset and we hope you’ve enjoyed delving into the beginnings of our mindset journey. And now that you understand the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone, we hope that you take that step too.

Yes, it can be scary… and the comfort zone is such an easy place to hang out.

But if you don’t stretch, you don’t grow or evolve, you’ll be left behind. All it takes is stepping into your fear once for it to become easier the next time. And then it’s easier again, the time after that and so on.

I mean, don’t, you want to step into your zone of genius and start seeing those results? And who wouldn’t want to become a beacon for attracting and inspiring people around you. It just takes a little bit of practice.

So join us in our next full length episode as we interview our next amazing guests, Maddie and Andrew from the Acai Corner. Hear about their business journey, [00:12:00] which began after falling in love with the humble little acai berry, whilst backpacking through the Amazon jungle in Northern Brazil. It sounds pretty exotic, and it is. it is not to be missed!

We hope you love this episode and to check out the show notes, head over to heartdrivenhustle.com/7.

We’ll see you next time. Bye.