5 Reasons to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

A lot of people come to Surf Life Coaching to get help making a bold transition, or to figure out how to get to the next level in their careers or personal lives.  Most of the time, they come stuck in their safe zone.  They are afraid, and by staying in the “safe zone”, they do not grow and challenge themselves to get to where it is they really want to go. 

When people start to step out of their comfort zones, a number of things happen.  For entrepreneurs, it can mean the difference between really starting to differentiate themselves in their industry vs. being just another plain business.  For individuals, it can mean paving an opening for going after what they really want vs. feeling stuck in their status quo lives.  

To take a leap and get past the fear can take a lot of work.  Sometimes, people are afraid they will fail, or are afraid of what others might think of them.  But what they don’t realize is that some amount of risk is what will also make them grow.  Any failure they might experience will be in service to a much greater personal self-growth and discovery. 

I know it’s one thing to list the logical reasons for stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and it’s another thing to FEEL the need to do so.  For the sake of this post, I’m going to stick to logic:   

1.  Grow your leadership

Stepping out of your comfort zone can aid in developing your leadership and self-growth.  As an example, a few years into running the nonprofit organization I founded, I was struggling in a relationship with one of my most important employees and fellow leaders.  Most of the time, we found ourselves burning the candle at both ends and were very overworked and tired.  We were stressed, and tempers were often short.  I knew we needed to have a critical conversation about what was going on, but I remember neither of us really wanted to have it.  We didn’t know HOW to have it, AND it was uncomfortable.

As I was the so-called ‘boss’, I’m sure it was hard for her to bring up our discordant dynamic.  And truth be told, I was equally afraid because back then, I wasn’t very versed with head-on, to-the-point conflict.  I was afraid of being blamed or worse yet, that she might leave.  (Yes, bosses have fears, too.)  We danced around this dynamic for a bit until it finally came to a head and we both had to have the conversation.  It was uncomfortable and I felt vulnerable, but it was so good to get things on the table.  Truth be told, tears were shed and thoughts and feelings were expressed.  And afterwards, it was as if we were in a whole new space.  I really understood her perspective and what she needed, and she understood my perspective, too.  Stepping into this zone of discomfort took me to a whole other level in my leadership. 

Conversations on difficult subjects after that with other employees, family and friends never seemed hard at all.  I had forced myself to be out of my comfort zone with this, and looking back, what I realized was that it was one of the best skills I developed in my leadership arsenal for the years ahead.  No conversation after that ever seemed quite as scary.    

2. Stand out from the crowd

Being uncomfortable is often the path to differentiation.  For example, I coach a number of entrepreneurs, and sometimes they end up sitting in their comfort zones in their business or lives, and nothing seems to be moving.  When they realize and come to terms with that big, scary idea or passion they have been stuffing away all these years, and start to move towards it, it feels uncomfortable.  They get scared, and often the voices of “can’t” and “sabotage” get in the way and give them every logical argument as to why they shouldn’t step towards it.  But, stepping towards this is when they start to grow.  If you are not in a place of feeling slightly uncomfortable, not stepping into new territory, how are you to find what makes you different?   

As an example, before I started Surf Life Coaching, I was just a coach – a “vanilla” brand coach for leaders and entrepreneurs (though some would say I’m too brown to be vanilla, but you know what I mean!).  Many friends and coaching colleagues would suggest that I somehow integrate surfing into my approach, since I loved it so much.  Well, I stuffed that idea so far down that I didn’t want to consider it – I was afraid.  But it was an idea that kept popping up again and again that I couldn’t seem to bury.  After much introspection, months of coaching and a day-long seminar on finding my true calling, I realized I could stay on land and do traditional coaching and trudge along in my business, or I could create something unique with little road map or knowledge of how to do it, and try to deliver my coaching service in a new and better way. 

I remember when I saw the path of where I needed to go.  I knew I needed to go all out with this surfing and coaching concept.  It had me terrified.  In the end, I got over the fears and developed my own methodology for Surf Life Coaching.  What this did was allow me to differentiate my services, and stand out.  It was not the comfortable path by any means, but it helped set my approach apart, allowing me to deliver my unique skills and talents to those most in need. 

3.  Gain new insights

Getting out of your comfort zone can often bring you to new ideas and insights.  When we surround ourselves with the same people, images, thoughts and media all the time, we are just reinforcing and trying to build on what we know.  When we can get out and see the world, connect with someone other than who is in our normal circle, we not only gain new perspectives, we also gain critical new insights for ourselves. 

This is why you might find business leaders choosing to hike up big mountains with Sherpas during their vacations, or activists bridging the worlds of technology and entrepreneurship to build hybrid models to get to something new.  Getting out of their comfort zones forces them to experience things in a different way, and to gain valuable perspective that can often lead to new creation. 

Great leaders may take risks and hire people for a position with little to no experience in their industry, but with know-how on the general concepts.  It’s a risk for the company or organization to bring in somebody without the industry knowledge, but what they gain through this is an entirely different perspective and way of seeing things that often ends up becoming a competitive advantage more than anything else.

4.  Build resilience

My second job out of college was as an Americorps/VISTA (sorta like the domestic Peace Corps) volunteer at a start-up social venture helping low-income women entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.  When I arrived on site to the job, I had no desk, no computer, no office and essentially, no physical place to work.  I had to find it all.  I worked out of my supervisor’s home office, borrowed a desk at central administration, and then worked out of a site for a homeless jobs program before landing in a commercial bank – all within the span of 12 months.  I know – yikes!  It was the most uncomfortable situation to go from a structured academic environment in college to having to fundraise to get your own computer and a chair to sit your butt down in!

But what this discomfort did was pattern in me a solutions-oriented and troubleshooting mind.  I would come to use those skills to start the next two social ventures and my business.  It gave me insights on how to attract and leverage resources, and how to stretch a dollar 5 times around the block, so to speak.  It also got me comfortable with mobility, and being able to be productive no matter what the environment.  These skills would come in handy for my entire future career in entrepreneurship. 

And then there was the time I found myself in Western Samoa in a village with a shack for a bathroom, sleeping on a mat on a plank with no walls.  Another seemingly uncomfortable situation, but I was not intimidated. ;)

Anyways, the discomfort seeded in me a resilience for change, and detachment to space.  These have been critical lessons learned along the road that have helped tremendously in my life transitions, and in creating and building things.  Resilience is invaluable currency. 

5.  Grow your capacity for respect and humility

When you step out of your comfort zone, you actually connect more with the world, and learn to have a healthy respect for others.  For example, when I take people surfing for the first time - let’s face it - they usually have their asses handed to them.  They fumble, wipe out, roll in the surf, and then pop their heads back up wondering why they weren’t able to get up on their board.  Some of them are used to being in control of everything in their businesses, careers and lives, but why can’t they get a hold of this? 

When they finish, they have such a different respect for the ocean, and a whole new respect for people who charge the ocean on bigger waves.  It also is a process that flattens ego, and can be a very rich place for self-discovery and for learning humility. 

I’m curious - where in your life or career have you felt stuck, but then ventured out of your comfort zone?  How did you do it and what did you learn?  I want to hear from you! 

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