How Do You Step Out of a Comfort Zone?

What does it take to find and do the uncomfortable thing?Photo by Aləx Buchan on Unsplash

The term comfort zone is a misnomer. That’s because what we call a comfort zone is often anything but comfortable. What it is, however, is familiar. Known. Maybe even vaguely understood.

The truth is that a comfort zone is a place that you already know and have familiarity with. It takes shape in both literal and metaphoric terms. Literally, your comfort zone is where and who you are. It’s the state, the home, the job, the relationships, the daily routines that propel you.

Metaphorically, your comfort zone is the feeling of familiarity, knowing, and even stability. It’s not just feeling, however, as it often gets tied to memory, belief, and value. False comfort zones are how politicians convince people to vote against their better interests, for example.

While for some, comfort zones are truly comfortable, for many people, they’re not. Part of growing and changing in life requires you to step out of a comfort zone. But how do you do that?

Become consciously aware

Active, conscious awareness is imperative. You can’t step out of your comfort zone if you don’t know who, what, where, how, and why you are, here and now. This has everything to do with the present. The past has come and gone, the future is in motion, but the present just is.

This is why the negativity heaped on being “woke” makes no sense at all. Being woke means being awake and aware of not just the world around you, but yourself. To make any change in your life, to make active, conscious choices for growth and evolution, this is utterly necessary.

To step out of a comfort zone, you must first recognize it for what it is. Because our society is hell-bent on keeping people disempowered and in fear, it’s challenging to see comfort zones because they’re only recognizable when you’re mindful. Living by rote, routine, and habit, you sink into a comfort zone so deeply that it loses all meaning. Which is often why it becomes uncomfortable.

Active conscious awareness is mindfulness. First and foremost, mindfulness of the self. With that, you can recognize your comfort zone. But that’s just step one. Step two is to acknowledge it.

Acknowledge your comfort zone

Recognizing your comfort zone is important. But acknowledging it is how you step out of it.

I can recognize that a house is on fire. If I don’t acknowledge it and remain within it, I’ll get burned. That might seem super obvious, but is it? How many people recognize something, then completely ignore and don’t acknowledge it? I give you the many crimes, past and present, of Donald Trump, who somehow is still President. But I digress.

The point is that you must both recognize and acknowledge a comfort zone to step out of it. Otherwise, you remain disempowered.

Photo by Elijah Hiett on UnsplashApplied mindfulness

Because the comfort zone is both literal and metaphorical, the latter requires you to be present, here and now, to apply mindfulness to change it. If your mindset/headspace/psyche is still in that familiar place, you can’t leave the relationship, start the business, move across the country, or whatever other literal work is necessary.

Applied mindfulness starts by asking questions that include,

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What are my intentions?Is my approach to things positive or negative?What am I doing?

Each of these can only be answered here and now, and by you alone. Once you have the answers, you become capable of making choices and decisions that will open you to potential, possibilities, and places outside of your comfort zone.

But not without action.

Step out of your comfort zone

To leave behind a given comfort zone, literally and metaphorically, requires action. Ask that person out, sign the contract, apply for the job, format the book, whatever. Take action, because without action, you have no motion.

This is, admittedly, easier said than done. Leaving a comfort zone involves stepping away from the known, the familiar, and the stable. Comfort zones are what they are because they feel like a down blanket on a cold winter night. But instead, they’re often that same down blanket stifling you in sweltering mid-summer heat.

I currently need to leave a comfort zone. I know that, for my books to sell more, I need to reach out to new people, act on new tactics, and leave behind the known for several unknowns.

Due to my greater desire to expand my business, this is what I must do, and that means leaving this uncomfortable comfort zone. Writing this out is a step in that direction, an action for me.

What does it take to find and do the uncomfortable thing? Once you recognize and acknowledge your comfort zone, you can apply mindfulness to take the next step and learn what that is for you and your life. I believe that’s utterly worthwhile. Also, if more people did this, I think we’d become more capable of turning this fear-based society into a reason-based one.

Can you see the truth of your comfort zones?

This is the seventh-hundred-twelfth (712) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.

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