Push your comfort zone – Day 14 of 30 Days of Happiness

Life is way to short to sit on the sidelines and play it safe. AMAZING things happen when you push outside of your comfort zone. Amaze yourself today by taking a SMALL step, outside of your comfort zone, TOWARDS your goal.

Toddlers explore their world by hesitantly taking steps away from mommy and daddy, then hi-tailing it back to them for comfort and reassurance, then going out again to explore. In adulthood though, most adults find a comfort zone and stick to it, forgetting that there’s a whole amazing world out there to explore and enjoy. We become complacent with the norm of our lives – work, home, sleep, repeat – and perhaps forget there’s more to life. For some, though, fear is keeping them from pushing their boundaries. Fear of failure, fear of open spaces, fear of closed spaces, fear of flying, fear of…. If you fall in the fear category ask yourself: What’s the worst thing that can happen to me? And if you’re OK with the answer, then take a step out of your comfort zone to try something new.

I can promise you that FEAR is only an ILLUSION. It’s NOT real because only LOVE is real and where this is love, there is light and where there is light there is no darkness and no fear.

So, when you’re standing on the edge of your comfort zone (kind of like standing on the edge of a zip-line platform) ask yourself this: “Today may be my last day on this earth, will I regret doing this or not doing it?”

There is a quote I read many years ago that still resonates with me:

I’d rather regret the things I did than the things I didn’t do.

and then this one from Mark Twain:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

There’s nothing wrong with playing it safe. It’s just, when you do, you miss out on opportunities that will AMAZE YOU and ENHANCE your life in ways you’ve never imagined.

Start slow by trying something NEW every month. Then gradually INCREASE until you’re doing it weekly and then daily. A good friend of mine once told me, every time she went on vacation she would try something new. I decided to give this a try and every trip I take I make an effort to try at least one NEW thing. I’ve pushed outside my comfort zone to JUMP in the Pacific Ocean and snorkel with wild dolphins (not to mention six sharks); faced my fear of HEIGHTS by taking a tram ride through a rain forest on St. Lucia; drove a sea-doo around a lagoon on Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (my knuckles where white the entire time but I wore a grin the entire time too!); but the SCARIEST and most REWARDING was swimming in a gorge on Dominica. I was looking forward to experiencing a frigid swim through a gorge to a waterfall, which would be followed by soaking in natural hot spring baths. Little did I know I would have to cross a NARROW platform to reach my goal. I have a fear of heights. YES, I do. I almost turned around, GIVING up, to wait in the bus. But I reminded myself that fear isn’t real – only LOVE is REAL – and this was a piece of cake (My Dad’s favorite saying). So, with ONE foot in front of the other, I CROSSED the platform and felt so much JOY and PRIDE in myself. I was elated!

Looking back, my fondest memory is of that excursion and that island and I believe it’s because I pushed through my comfort zone, tried something I’d never done before and felt so amazing because of it.

Another thing I like to do is try eating something I’ve never had before. I will walk around Farm Boy, see something unusual, buy it, take it home, look it up on the Internet, and then try it. There have been more misses than hits but the hits have been added to my every growing list of foods I enjoy.

So I gently encourage you to push your comfort zone by trying something you wouldn’t normally do, whether it’s REACHING out to new people, new places, TRYING new activities or new food, whatever it is, just take that STEP outside of your box; outside of your comfort zone and be AMAZED at what happens.