We’ve all heard a lot recently about getting out of our comfort zone – that to stop playing small, to be able to take a chance, to live your life to the fullest – you have to let go of limiting beliefs, and step outside of your comfort zone bubble.
But have you ever thought about whether or not staying in your comfort zone bubble is good for you as an author?
After all, our comfort zone is where we feel in control and ‘safe’. It’s where we can predict what will happen and how we will feel. As authors, we can write about what we know, and what we are comfortable with. There won’t be any surprises that we can’t deal with.
So why would you feel compelled or even want to get out of your comfort zone?
When I finally got out of my comfort zone, it was when I found out that a simple infection I’d received the year before had moved into the bones of my foot. I had been prepared to lose a toe – after all, I still had four good toes. So when I found out the doctors wanted to amputate all the toes and the metacarpals, I was shocked. I was not prepared for that, at all. It took me the better part of a week for me to deal with all the feelings and emotions and realizing that I had been living inside a bubble of my comfort zone.
I knew I needed to do it because waiting could mean they’d have to amputate my entire foot or even my leg. But when I came face to face with the fact that it wasn’t healing, that the antibiotics and the first surgery hadn’t worked – it forced me to step outside of my comfort zone – and once I did, I had to not only deal with the operation, but I began looking at all the other fears and limiting beliefs I had been holding onto for dear life, safe within the bubble of my comfort zone.
And I realized that holding on to my limiting beliefs – about my abilities as a writer, an author, a book coach, about getting visible…were nothing more than an acronym I’d heard before, but had not tried to understand. FEAR – False Emotions Appearing Real.
My fears were nothing more than the stories that I’d been programmed with as a child, and continued to tend, occasionally adding new ones, and had fiercely guarded as I became an adult.
I needed to do it because stepping outside of my comfort zone was the key to my personal and professional growth, happiness and my being able to push past my fears and limiting beliefs.
So I’m here to tell you that stepping out of that zone can help you in three ways: It helps you build up your self-confidence, it changes the way you view yourself, and finally, it lets you experience your fears – and see that most of them aren’t real, they’re just a broken record message you were told as a child, that keeps repeating as you got older.
So is being in your comfort zone holding you back from living a more fulfilled life and growing in your career?
I believe the answer is yes. Being in your comfort zone and staying there, could be keeping you from realizing and achieving the things you want, and the message you were sent to share with the world. It keeps you afraid: afraid of trying new things, of doing things you know you should be doing, and of helping the people you are meant to help.
Staying safely within your comfort zone keeps you from being challenged, which means you never have to rise to new occasions, new heights, or new experiences.
I say take a baby step outside of your comfort zone. Do something new. Challenge yourself a little more each day. You can always go back in the bubble if that’s what you really want. But somehow, I don’t think it will be…