How To Get Out of Your Comfort Zone (And Stay There)

 

My name is Jimena Ramirez. I am a behavior change coach and I’m the director of coaching and program strategy here at Body Brain Alliance. 

 

Taking more risks and trying to get out of your comfort zone is something that we are very passionate about here at Body Brain Alliance. We work with a lot of our private coaching clients around this specific subject. We also work on this inside Change Academy. 

 

To Get Started, I Want To Ask You A Question: 

• • When you’re thinking about getting past your fear, are you thinking about becoming someone who is fearless or courageous? 

There is actually a difference between the two of them. 

 

Fearless is without fear. We’re thinking that we are going to get to a point where we feel no fear and then that will allow us to take action. 

 

Courageous or brave actually entails the idea that we are feeling the fear and we are still taking action. So there are no right or wrong choices here. Whatever word resonates with you the most, that is the word that we want to use for inspiration to become this next version of yourself. The version that is able to get themselves past their comfort zone. 

 

However, I can say that in general, courageous or brave are the words that resonate the most with our clients. 

 

And as a behavior change coach, I really love seeing how that entails the idea that fear may be present, because fear is a part of being a human.

 

It’s a part of our experience, and we don’t need to entirely eliminate fear to help ourselves take action. This can really put us in a position where we can be flexible instead of getting caught up in “all or nothing” thinking.

 

So how can we take action to actually get out of our comfort zone? 

Now that we have defined that experiencing fear is not something that should get in the way of still taking action…

• • We want to define what is the right type of action for us? 

• • What is the action that will feel the most adequate depending on where we’re at? 

And one thing that we want to consider is that comfort zones are absolutely subjective.

 

Everyone starts in a different place, and that is why we try to make it a point to meet yourself or you’re at. 

This is way more than a cliche phrase. 

We are saying that for a reason, when we are allowing ourselves to take gradual action that feels doable, that feels attainable… We don’t need to worry about starting from a big place because we can actually build our way there. 

 

You can stack those different challenges that you’re going to be taking on to create something bigger, but you don’t need to start on something that is so scary that prevents you from taking that action. 

Meeting yourself where you’re at is the first step here. 

And starting small doesn’t mean that you’re selling yourself short or that you don’t trust yourself enough. 

 

Starting small, if anything, means that you’re being strategic enough to know that you are able to build up on whatever you are creating, and you don’t need to start with the hardest thing. 

 

And in fact, the more compassion we apply into this process, the more gradual we make it, the more awareness we create about where: 

• • we’re at

• • we want to be

• • and how we feel

…the more likely we are to continue taking those steps that allow us to get out of our comfort zone. 

Let’s think about the idea of your comfort zone and how we can actually take steps to move towards something more intentional and meaningful to you. 

• • Where are you at right now? 

• • What are you currently doing and how are you feeling while you’re doing those things? 

• • How would you like to feel instead? 

• • What is one small action that could take you there without thinking in “all or nothing” terms?

Maybe you’re thinking about the bigger goal that you want to attain. 

What is one small move you can make today that actually feels attainable, realistic and doable? One small move that is going to help you pave the way there? 

 

For example, maybe you’re currently going on daily walks and you’re trying to get more cardio in. Your goal is to start doing 20 minute runs. That would be out of your comfort zone. 

 

However, if you think about that, maybe that feels too unattainable and that prevents you from taking steps. 

 

There are small steps in the middle of walking daily to doing a 20 minute run that you could be taking and they would still be getting you out of that comfort zone. 

You want to make sure that you’re starting with full knowledge of where you’re at and how hard things will be and how hard it could be to sustain those things.

So another way of getting yourself out of your comfort zone could look like going for a brisk walk or walking in a different area, or maybe in a different terrain that is more hilly. 

 

That would still create some challenge for yourself. So all those different things would still qualify as getting yourself out of your comfort zone, and you would be doing so in a way that allows you to take more steps than maybe trying to go for a 20 minute run. Which potentially you could be doing once or two times a week.

 

Whereas these other things, you could still continue doing them daily and reinforcing that self trust that you have. 

 

Now you might be able to get yourself through that most challenging action that you thought about first. 

 

Maybe you do go on your 20 minute run and you love it! That would be great, or maybe you go on your run and you feel absolutely miserable and you’re thinking… “Well, I did it anyway. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone.”

But we want to make sure that whatever we’re building is going to be lasting and sustainable because change doesn’t happen from taking one action. 

It happens from adding that potential of change through doing those things over and over again, whatever that looks like. 

 

So is it going to be more helpful to actually get one run that you are not going to be able to sustain or feel good about long term? Or would it be more helpful to help yourself by moving through that in a more gradual way that allows you to take more consistent action towards your goals? 

The more consistent action you take will build greater self-belief to get yourself out of that comfort zone. 

So the takeaway for this is that we don’t need to make things hard for the sake of making things hard. 

 

You can choose to start where you’re at. 

 

Choose to take gradual steps out of our comfort zone because the main point here is that you can sustain that and continue expanding more and more. 

 

Join The Discussion:

Share in the comments below about your own experience trying to get yourself out of your comfort zone! And if you try this, what did you experience? How did it feel? Share if this was helpful for you or not.  

 

Remember, you get to choose how you start. 

 

And keep in mind that getting yourself out of your comfort zone is not simply for a goal, but more about the pursuit of the person that you’re trying to become. 

 

So let’s keep that as our main goal above all and how this is helping you feel as the human that you’re building. 

 

Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!