From the course: Success Habits

Come out of your comfort zone

From the course: Success Habits

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Come out of your comfort zone

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- My next success habit is to come out of your comfort zone every now and then. When faced with something a little bit scary or uncomfortable, do you tend to think, actually I won't? Or do you tend to think, I'm going to have a go at that, it might lead somewhere and it's good for me to push myself? I think a great success rule is never turn down an opportunity, even if it's inconvenient or hard work or scary. And remember that coming out of your comfort zone, isn't necessarily about doing physically scary things like parachute jumping or scuba diving. It could just as well be about things that are mentally scary, like giving a presentation or phoning up a CEO. In fact, success is bound to involve some moments like this. And they're almost certainly going to be mentally scary rather than physically. To be able to come out of your mental comfort zone is a key habit to develop by practicing it every now and then. Just take those opportunities to do things that are a little bit difficult and tell yourself that doing this is good for you. Perhaps make it a game to do something a little bit scary at least once every week. Here are three ways to help yourself to get better at doing this. First, choose to work with people who are good at pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone. I have a couple of friends who seem to have no fear at all, so I find myself having to keep up with them, and it's good for me. One of them, hi John, invests bigger amounts of money in new ideas than I would ever risk, and doesn't hesitate to pitch new ideas to customers. The other one, hi Jerry, is working on a TV program on happiness with me, and he's phoning up celebrities to ask them to be on the show, which is both exciting and scary. I'd never be doing it without him. So that's great and I admire his courage. So that's the people you'd choose to work with. Second is to take the first step. Get into the habit of starting the process before you have a chance to question yourself. Say yes to giving that talk at the conference and then you'll have to do the work to survive that uncomfortable situation. Accept it before you've had a chance to think about how it could go wrong, and then it's too late, you're doing it, and you'll come out to the other side all the better for it. Third is to use others to make yourself do it. Commit to a colleague or customer or your boss that you'll do something and then you have to do it. Promise to them that you'll call 50 people this week or that you'll spend tomorrow interviewing people on the street about your product, and then you've got to do it. Promising to someone else is a great way to force yourself to have the willpower to do something unpleasant but important. So can you think of something now that would be a good first step that would push you a bit further than you'd be comfortable with? That would be important and useful in your success plan, and could you either plunge in to doing that first step or promise to someone else that you'll do it?

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