Have you heard the saying “growth is outside of your comfort zone”?
Maybe you don’t even want to grow. Perhaps your life is the BEST, MOST FABULOUS life you could ever imagine. If so, congratulations! I would wager that the majority of us couldn’t/wouldn’t say that with complete honesty and sincerity.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone is growth. It is expansion. The box you are in gets bigger. The walls retreat a little. You get more space to move about the cabin. It feels good, yes?
What does stepping outside your comfort zone mean?
Picture this. It’s comfortable to sit there in you slippers, comfy pants that don’t bind, right by the heater, with your favorite beverage within reach. That is comfortable. That’s your comfort zone.
Outside of your comfort zone though, it’s hard walking down the basement steps. It hurts your knees and your hips. Your pants are too tight. And you don’t like to look at your reflection in the mirror. This is outside of your comfort zone. This is uncomfortable.
However, to get rid of the creaky knees and clackey hips, to be comfortable in your skin – and clothes, to love and honor your reflection, you will have to get uncomfortable on purpose.
You have to hmmm…… maybe exercise? That means sweating. That means feeling like you can’t breathe. That means your thighs are on fire. All of that is purposeful uncomfortableness. And all of that begins to lessen the pain of walking down the basement steps. The sweating, burning, gasping for air is – WAY – very very very uncomfortable. But it will end soon. Your endorphins will flood your brain. And you will feel great. Your comfort zone will reach a new high.
And your uncomfortable zone shrank.
For one, you learned that you are going to keep breathing. You learned that your thighs are still there. They didn’t burn up. The sweat will dry. Basically, you didn’t die.
For two, your clothes start fitting better. It will get easier to walk down the steps. And when you look in the mirror, you can congratulate the reflection for being so strong.
You, my friend, have just stretched your comfort zone because you stepped outside of comfort and got seriously uncomfortable. (Believe me, your next workout will be ever so slightly easier too.)
You just experienced growth and expansion. You just stepped closer to you BEST, MOST FABULOUS life. Keep going Sis!
Suzanne Horrocks 