Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is one of, if not the best form of self-development!
“From today on, I will set my alarm every day to prepare myself for the day, as if I have to go to work again as usual.”
“I'm going to call my friend right now who I haven't spoken to in months.”
“Even though I've never done it before, I'm finally going to hang that shelf in the bedroom.”
“I'm going to train to run 5km.”
“Today I am going to be assertive in the work meeting.”
“I'm not touching my phone today.”
Everyone knows the feeling that there are still things that need to be done, but that they are not being done because you:
– Don't feel like it
– Don't know how to do it
– Are afraid of someone's reaction
– It seems impossible
– It takes effort
– Etc.
This ultimately causes, sometimes unconsciously, to create unrest in your head. This ultimately has an impact on how you feel, physically and/or mentally. So even though you choose to leave something out or not do it, because that is the most comfortable thing, it starts to eat at you.
This is what you want to avoid, because at some point you lose yourself in doing nothing. If you don't challenge yourself, you will increasingly end up in a rut that will only make it more difficult to get out of it. Anyone can maintain that for a long time, but ask yourself whether you want to be like that. Are you someone who constantly settles for the situation as it is? If so, what does that mean for you?
Or do you choose to keep renewing yourself and are you aware of what that does to you? How do you feel when you finally get that one job done? Or if you have achieved a feat that you initially thought you would never be able to do? If you don't know that feeling, I challenge you to tackle something right NOW, no matter how small it is. Make your bed, take out the trash, do 10 push ups, write a sweet text on a post it note for your partner. Small chores or actions also give you a feeling of satisfaction. Something small every day to start your day is a good start to doing something big later. Challenge yourself more and more so that you expand your comfort zone.
As an example, I will share the following with you. Recently I did something that I never thought possible, let alone chose to do. I rowed a marathon without coercion or any form of compensation. In other words, performing a monotonous movement for more than 4 hours to cover 42,195 meters. Let me tell you that rowing (on a machine) is already an exercise that I really hate. Because of my build, I already start with a disadvantage in being able to cover a lot of distance quickly, I'm not good at it and I don't feel the need to get much better at it. While I was working on it, there were plenty of times when I wanted to give up, especially when my back started to hurt enormously. But in the end, with a big final sprint, I made it.
The moral of this story is that now that I look back on it, I am extremely proud of myself for achieving and doing this. It gives me courage that I can take on these types of challenges more often and that I am mentally able to keep pushing myself to finish something, even when my body is in danger of giving up. In this way I have 'expanded' my comfort zone.
This is something in the sporting field, but there are plenty of challenges in life in all kinds of areas. When you choose to do something, make a mental note that you will complete it regardless of the circumstances. Because once you have achieved something, it will release everything in you, giving you the feeling that you can handle more, or perhaps even everything. If you choose now to do something new/annoying every day, no matter how small it is, who knows where you will be as a person in a year's time.
Remy Jean Le
Enforce Master Trainer
remyjean@enforce.nl
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