Before I explain how to get out of your comfort zone, I’d first like to explain what a comfort zone is.
The comfort zone is a state of mind in which we feel comfortable and relaxed. It consists of behavioral patterns, activities, locations, habits, etc.
This anxiety-free state is the ideal place we want to be in as we feel we are in control of our mind. People have different low and high comfort zone levels they feel comfortable in.
As much as we wish to stay in a comfort zone, it can be a bad thing. Why? Because we conform and become complacent. It prevents us from reaching our goals and doing the things we want. It’s a mental restriction that can be controlled with the right approach.
Human beings have a desire to grow and improve in life. That’s why it is very important to push our boundaries to experience new opportunities life has to offer.
Here are some of the things you could be missing out on if you become too comfortable:
- making new friends
- doing new activities
- excelling at work
- exploring everything your life has to offer
- growing mentally, physically
We have all faced difficult situations in our lives before where we experienced anxiety, increased heart rate, perspiration, nervousness, distorted thinking, and so on. The symptoms I have just described are what I’m going to refer to as the “danger zone.” Ideally, we want to avoid it to prevent us from feeling any negative emotions.
Unfortunately, sometimes we find ourselves in a bad situation that feels hopeless and the dreadful danger zone is upon us. We start to panic and become self-aware of the symptoms. This only makes us feel worse, preventing us from thinking clearly and making the right decisions.
How to get out of your comfort zone?
Since you are interested in finding out how to break out of your shell and start living life to its fullest, I assume you are ready to take action and start your personal transformation.
The following approaches entail extreme dedication until “breaking out of the comfort zone” becomes a routine (21-66 days), depending on your circumstances. I strongly advise you that no matter which approach you choose that you still do 66 days to avoid regressing.
If you truly want to find out how to get out of your comfort zone, then I must tell you there are 2 approaches that work best. First one we will call “baby steps” and the other “you will suffer.“
Baby steps – Slow and steady route to your destination, long-lasting, smaller changes, and less chance to regress.
You will suffer – Faster results, more efficient, possibly feel more pain, higher chances to regress, requires a positive mindset and dedication.
Baby steps
Let’s pretend this bar depicts your comfort and danger zone. You have chosen to go with the “baby steps” approach and opted in for a 66-day plan. You want to start slowly in the green area and work towards your goal which is the red area. The numbers on the bottom present the days of your challenge.
The goal here is to start in the comfort zone and make improvements every day. By the end of the 21st day, you should be completely stretching your comfort zone. That’s when day 21 starts to look like this. (look at the bar below)
Do you see what happened here? Day 21 is still pretty hard for you to deal with (you are still in the danger zone). Your next objective is to get into the green zone. A day will come when you feel comfortable in your skin and chances are you won’t even notice. In this case, it happens on day 36 (the bar is just an example, your situation will obviously be different).
This part is pretty self-explanatory. You made it, your anxiety no longer interferes with your life and you feel good about yourself. Congratulations, the hard part is over. “Wait, what do you mean the hard part, I thought this was it.”
Don’t regress
Remember when I said your progress can regress? This is where it can get tricky. If you go back to your old ways and get comfortable without fully accomplishing the goals, you risk reverting back to an old state. Push through the 66 days and that is when you can take a step back and bask in success.
If you’ve come this far, I congratulate you. Now you must keep up with the danger zone and continue doing what has now become a routine for you. Never get too relaxed again so your day 66 doesn’t become day 21 again.
You will suffer
If you paid attention to the previous method, you now have a general understanding of how forming habits works in correlation with anxiety. We are again going with a 66-day plan, but speeding it up (the time it takes to reach the danger zone).
If you really want to know how to get out of your comfort zone the hard way, then look no further. Since you have gone completely mad and wish to change drastically, this technique is for you. By skipping comfort zone stages be prepared to get hurt in the process.
Since you are crazy serious about breaking out of your comfort zone, we should make a few noticeable changes. Look at the graph below and see how it differentiates from the “baby steps” approach.
We are pushing, breaking, escaping, and facing the danger zone head-on starting with day 1. Because you are absolutely convinced this is the way to go, you will be putting yourself out there, screaming in pain on the inside. This is the best way to face your fears and it takes great courage to say “fk it, I’m going in”.
About halfway through the 21-day challenge, you should start feeling more comfortable and very likely tired as well. Remember to take breaks and reward your progress.
Challenges
If you were searching for “how to get out of your comfort zone fast” you now know it’s no easy task. Some of the issues you may encounter are: becoming drained of energy or enthusiasm, confidence, illness, other unpredictable setbacks, and failures.
I cannot tell you how important it is to keep fighting when you are knocked down. Don’t give up, try again and again and again. Fake it till you make it. As long as you are on the road to success.
66 days is a long time, so it’s quite possible for your progress to look like this.
If you face a problem I want you to act as if nothing happened. It did not affect you at all and tomorrow is another day. Perseverance is key if you want to get out of your comfort zone. Rinse and repeat until you see results. Once you have accomplished your goal, go for 66 days and victory is yours.
You can use this method to increase confidence or break a habit, such as biting nails—for example.
What do you think about the “How to get out of your comfort zone – 66-day challenge?” Have you tried anything similar before? Let me know how you accomplished results by posting in the comments below.
This post is sensational and those that are confused, the “plan” is embedded in the GRAPHICS….The graphics depict time-scales and the effort and courage you will apply as you get out of your comfort zone!
There are two basic “plans”…
Go slower: “Baby Steps”
and
Go Fast!: “You Will Suffer!” (But perhaps achieve faster breakthroughs!)
The key is to study the graphics, that depict the Days and amount of effort
or intensity one might be applying to stretching their comfort zone…!
The slower plan is less intense (so more green!)
and the faster plan is more intense (so more Red!)
Study the page just a little bit more, paying close attentions
to the color gradations in the excellent graphics and the genius
of the Author will shine though!
Excellent work Zan!
Hi Mark.
I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I know it can be a bit confusing, but there are essentially two ways to get out of your comfort zone and build up confidence; the quick and the slow way. Both have positives and negatives.
Best,
Zan
This article makes no sense. There isn’t any type of link to the challenge.
Hi, where do I find the 66 day challenge?
Hi James.
The 21-day plan is essentially longer, safer, and much less likely to fail with (regress). It’s the plan I talked about at the beginning of the article under “baby steps.”
Sorry for the confusion.
Kind regards,
Zan
A very good thread everyone should have looked at, Im surprised there are no comments here.
After getting monkey-branched, I naturally felt the need to try something like this and only afterwards I stumbled upon this post of yours, Zan.
It’s great to see a break-down of what I was already naturally gravitating towards doing and to anyone else reading – this is a more enriching experience than any romantic experience could give you.
I only have one question, after two months, I felt worn out, I went out of my comfort zone a lot and with no problems, but after two months, I feel tired, how should one recharge before going for another deep dive of pushing comfort zone boundaries?
In my case in particular, I was very introverted, so I became extrovert, made new groups of friends at events, met new people, traveled, etc. – But my energy to do those things is wearing out.
Hi Miguel.
Thank you for your comment.
After two months, your enthusiasm ran out. You no longer felt the breakup emotions that allowed you to continue to work on yourself, so you reverted back to your regular state.
You now need to set your goals and find the motivation to strive towards new things.
You can do so by writing down the things you want to do, and add next to them reasons why they’re important to you.
Look at them, read them multiple times a day and continue with passion.
I hope this helps.
Good luck,
Zan