Published 03/09/2022 by Joanne Jones

How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Do you experience panic, anxiety or some fear when faced with an unexpected situation? Do you feel stressed out or need clarification if your daily routine changes? You are not alone.

The comfort zone describes the routine we follow throughout the day without much thought. These routines feel normal to you and are the familiar activities we do day in and day out.

Still, your comfortable daily routine does not challenge your personal growth or help you recognise strengths or weaknesses. Likewise, it does not motivate your professional growth or other growth opportunities. While living within your comfort zone means you will have a sense of security, it may also hinder your progress.

The problem with the comfort zone and sticking to the same familiar activities is that they stop you from progressing further and stunt your growth opportunities.

When you stay with what you feel is "comfortable" or the "norm", you never push yourself to learn new things, do something different, take on mental challenges or ambitious tasks or discover hidden talents that you didn't know you had.

When you stick to what is comfortable, you can become lazy about life, never wanting anything more for yourself or your loved ones. Stepping out of the comfort place or zone can be a surprisingly rewarding experience.

When you pluck up the courage to get out of your comfort zone and take on extra challenges, mental activities, and experiences, you will create a growth mindset and feel a newfound sense of energy and confidence when you realise your hidden talents.

If you are ready to start your journey of personal growth, read our beginner's guide on how to step out of your comfort zone easily.

What Is the Comfort Zone?

The comfort zone. It's a term used casually to convey how a person feels within his or her psychological state, where one feels secure and in control, being lulled into a routine that eliminates as much stress and risk as possible. It is a zone of habit, familiar environment, and behaviour where the person resides in a perception of low anxiety and stress.

To some extent, this zone is seen to provide a sense of stability and safety, but the process of constantly repeating every single step daily halts progress or personal development.

4 Reasons You Are Stuck in the Comfort Zone

There are a good few reasons why we get stuck in our habitual comfort zone. One of the most significant is fear of failure, which can prevent a person from taking risks or trying something new.

A lack of self-confidence, self-esteem or negative past experiences can trigger this fear. Another reason is the natural preference for stability and predictability, which makes change seem undesirable or cumbersome.

The comfort zone is built around habits and routines that provide security and control. Recognising these causes is key to taking the first step out of your comfort zone.

1. Overthinking

Are you scared to step out of your comfort zone? If yes, then you are overthinking the situation. Overthinking is a culprit that keeps many people trapped in the "normal zone." Overthinking comes into play when considering a thousand different scenarios to take the least risky option in every event.

Overthinking is all about risk avoidance. People in a downward spiral of excessive, repetitive, and obsessive thinking about what might happen and what the consequences will be should tend to stick to the normal activity routine and remain unchallenged.

How to Stop Overthinking?

Stopping overthinking involves adopting strategies that help break the cycle of excessive analysis and build confidence in taking risks. Here are some tips to help you stop overthinking and step out of your comfort zone:

• Mindfulness Meditation: Daily meditation exercises help you focus on the present moment. They can help clear your mind and lessen repetitive thoughts about what might happen if you take an unusual risk. Meditation also helps calm your thoughts and feelings. It is a great starting point for stepping out of your comfort zone.
• Set Time Limits for Decisions: Give yourself a thinking allowance. Try setting a time frame so you don't go over the situation repeatedly. Think briefly about the problem and then take a small risk or two. It doesn't need to be a mammoth task or silly risk; try something small to start with without obsessively thinking about it first.
• Focus on What You Can Control: Think about what you can do about a situation rather than focusing on the things you can't control.
• Fight Negative Thoughts: Think about the brighter side and the positive outcomes.

If you can challenge your overthinking patterns and worrying thoughts, you become more comfortable letting go of fears and begin to step out of your comfort zone more easily.

2. Worried About the Outcome of Trying Something New

When you're going through your daily routine, you pretty much know how things will go, and you try to keep things as smooth sailing as possible. But if you introduce an unpredictable variable, then you are removing that level of control – and that's worrying because people like having control over things that they expect to have control over.

Perhaps you want to start a business, but you can't deal with thoughts of what might happen if you fail; this is a fear you need to overcome if you want to step out of your comfort zone.

You need to accept that not everything you do will succeed, and that's not bad. Failure is a learning opportunity. Enjoy the thought of the challenge and succeeding rather than focus on what might happen if you fail.

3. You Procrastinate Too Often

Procrastination is when you put something off until later, and we are all guilty. A common reason people put off doing things is that they have other less stressful or challenging tasks they need to do and choose to complete them first. 

Many people put things off because they fear the challenge is too great or difficult and they will fail. It can be a fearful thing to put yourself out there and risk not being good enough; nevertheless, it is essential to remember that everyone experiences failure at some point.

What makes someone successful is not the lack of failures but their ability to learn, grow and continue moving forward even when they fail. So, to step out of your comfort zone, you will need to take on the challenges that might be more difficult than usual rather than putting them off just in case you fail.

4. You Are a Crowd Pleaser

If you want to get out of your comfort zone, being a crowd-pleaser won't help. One sure thing that will stop you from doing so is your desire or need to be a part of the crowd. Most people would rather fit in than stand out, even if fitting in goes against their best interests and prevents personal or professional growth.

Being part of the crowd means doing what everyone else is doing without question; it means accepting the status quo and being a sheep following the herd rather than the wolf leading the pack.

Being a crowd-pleaser can prevent you from achieving your full potential. When you blindly follow the crowd, you do not think for yourself, question the status quo, or look for a better way.

Removing yourself from the crowd and thinking on your own terms will help you get out of your comfort zone and achieve your personal goals.

3 Ways to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

If you want to get out of your comfort zone, challenge your brain, and progress further in life, you will need to start small by taking on new mini-tasks and then learn to take on larger, more challenging risks.

Taking a step out of your comfort zone is worth it if you want to grow and succeed in life. It can help your personal and professional growth, challenging you to overcome fears, develop new skills, and gain vibrant and fresh perspectives on life.

If you step out of your comfort zone, you will grow stronger in resilience and adaptability, allowing you to handle unexpected situations with less anxiety and more confidence.

1. Start Small

Starting small is a great way to get out of your comfort zone. Making small changes will make you less likely to feel terrified and anxious.

Take a small step out into the unknown and do something you don't usually do, then make bigger changes. If standing up in front of a large group terrifies you, speak up more frequently in small groups or start speaking to yourself in front of the mirror; you never know; you might even become a public speaker and find it an empowering experience.

Once your range of acceptable behaviours expands, move on to larger audiences. You are conditioning your mind to learn that trying new experiences is ok.

2. Set Goals

If you want to step out of your comfort zone, you need goals and reasons to do it. Getting lost on the journey is easy when you need to know where you're going. Set clear goals focusing on what you want and how to achieve it.

These goals will need to be a challenge or doing something out of the normal daily routine that you wouldn't usually do—a risk of some sort to help you get out of your comfort zone.

3. Reward Yourself

When you reward yourself for venturing out and making changes to your life, you ensure the continuation of positive behaviour. Also, recording your successes, no matter how small – and celebrating them builds positive reinforcement.

If you reward yourself when you try something new or take a risk, gradually, every time you take a step out of your comfort zone, it will become a more pleasurable and less worrying experience.

Why Step Out of Your Comfort Zone?

When you start to step out of your comfort zone, it forces you to grow, expand your horizons, and push your limits to develop new skills, become more creative, and build resilience and flexibility to handle life's frequent curveballs.

After the initial anxiety and discomfort comes discovering hidden strengths or skills, which can open paths to new opportunities and fun experiences.

Spiritual Readings

Spiritual readings with Trusted Psychics UK can help you step out of your comfort zone and take control of your life by using spiritual techniques and mindfulness meditation to ease your fears and worries about stepping out of your everyday routines.

The experienced psychics at Trusted Psychics provide spiritual guidance and support, empowering you to confront challenges and take the necessary risks to progress. By tapping into your spiritual energy, we help you uncover deeper insights into the challenges you may face, outcomes of situations and how to combat them, allowing you to feel calm when you dare to take the risk to step out of your comfort zone.

Get out of your comfort zone today with the help of a live psychic reader, or chat online with a Live Messenger psychic expert. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself.

FAQs

What Does It Mean to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone?

A step out of your comfort zone means breaking out of well-established and often deliberately established physical, mental, and emotional patterns.

It's a stable pattern in the way you live your life. Stepping out of your comfort zone means taking on risks, challenging your fears and facing new experiences that can provoke some level of pain, fear, or anxiety.

Stepping out of your comfort zone means doing what you usually wouldn't do or finding methods to do it while overcoming mental and emotional blocks such as fear of failure, rejection, or not doing things the way you are used to.

Is It Healthy to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone?

Yes, by pushing yourself to step out of your comfort zone, you are exercising healthy risk-taking and practising good mental behaviours. This is particularly helpful as it can boost your mental strength when facing fear or challenges, making you feel more confident.

Should You Stay in Your Comfort Zone at Work?

Now and then, everyone can feel secure and comfortable at their job, and sometimes, this feeling even masks immediate stress. But, spending too much of your work time in a comfort zone can slow your professional growth and development. Although predictable routines carry certain advantages, being constantly at your psychological comfort level at work is a common career killer.

When you take a step out of your comfort zone at work, you may learn something new and progress to higher levels and promotions.

Book a spiritual reading by Trusted Psychics today and benefit from the experience a specialist spiritual reader has to offer you.

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