Episode 5 - Escaping the Comfort Zone Trap

Escaping the Comfort Zone Trap

In episode five of 'Life After Fear: Redefine Your Limits,' Courtney Schoch explores the transformative journey of stepping out of the comfort zone to achieve personal growth. She outlines four critical zones: comfort, fear, learning, and growth, emphasizing that remaining in the comfort zone hampers happiness and development. Courtney discusses the fear zone's self-doubt and procrastination and how entering the learning zone can lead to new skills and challenges. Positive self-talk and SMART goals are highlighted for navigating the growth zone, where genuine motivation and purpose lie.


MENTIONS

The Comfort Zone
Jen Sincero
Jessica Honneger

Learn more about your host Courtney Schoch

Transcript

Courtney: Hello, everyone; thank you for joining me for episode number five of Life After Fear, Redefine Your Limits with me, Courtney Schoch. This is where you confront your fears and transform your life. Today, we are getting outside of our comfort zone. 

How many of you have asked questions about yourself and where you are in life recently? Many of us are so busy getting through the day that we have not had time to even think about what we want or what doesn't fit into our lives anymore. We keep doing the same thing we have always done and get frustrated because we're not happy. It is possible, friends, that you have entered the comfort zone. This is not good in the long run. 

Why do you think you're stuck? Have you even asked yourself that question?  One reason could be that identity and self-perception are connected to the comfort zone. That's what keeps us there. It makes it more difficult to try new things. We miss out on growth opportunities because we become complacent. I am 100 percent guilty of being complacent at times. 

There are four zones that I'd like for us to explore today. The first is the Comfort Zone. This is where we feel safe and in control. We do not have a lot going on here. It is low risk and low reward, but it's safe, and there is a ton of certainty. Not much is going to happen to you if you're sitting on your couch binge-watching TV or reading books, sometimes reading the same book twice. It is perfectly okay to be in that space for a short period of time.  

The second zone is the Fear Zone. This is where we lack self-confidence. Our actions are affected by others' opinions; we make excuses, and we procrastinate. Most of us live in this zone. 

The next zone, Zone number three, is the Learning Zone. The Learning Zone is where you problem-solve, face challenges, and acquire new skills. When was the last time you asked yourself, what skill do I want to improve on?

What skill do I want to be better at? I asked myself this question, and one of the skills that I want to be better at, which has just recently come up, is riding my motorcycle. I was given a motorcycle as a birthday gift. It's not something I asked for. Uh, and quite frankly, riding a motorcycle scares me, but I wanted to try something new. So I went and enrolled in a motorcycle course and got an endorsement  It is very uncomfortable, but it makes me feel good when I'm able to ride. I have not been able to get out of third gear because I've only been riding in my neighborhood. So, I'm still learning. But what's interesting is that when we spoke about identity and self-perception, how important language in self-talk is.  

When I step into the learning zone, I want to face challenges and acquire new skills; when I think about the motorcycle, I immediately go to a place where I'm not a motorcycle rider. I don't know how to do this, and I'm scared. So, do you think that that empowers me to want to learn how to ride my motorcycle?

No, absolutely not. It bumps me into the Fear Zone because I have a lack of self-confidence, and I start to make excuses for why I can't ride. I start to procrastinate. That just erodes at my self-confidence. It's similar to the progress cycle we discussed in previous episodes. It makes me feel uncomfortable. So, I get stuck back in the fear zone and dip back into the comfort zone. After I make my excuses, I go into the house and just bake some cookies or something and sit on the couch and watch TV. This gets me nowhere. I am very aware of my self-talk, but I actively have to change that because if I don't, I'll never get to the next zone, which is the Growth Zone.

That's where we have a higher purpose. We have a better idea of what our vision is. We're more self-aware, and we can self-motivate. This is the zone that we really want to be in. We want to sort of transition back and forth between the Learning Zone and the Growth Zone because that gives us the power in our actions and allows us to rise higher, to be happier, to give back to a community, to just be more and do more and see the world in a different light.

Some ways that you can spend more time in the Learning Zone and the Growth Zone is by setting goals. I'm sure many of you have heard about SMART goals.

I used to find SMART goals very frustrating and very confusing until I sat down and actually made a SMART goal. So if you're not aware of SMART, which is an acronym, that means that you plan effectively with specific targets in mind. It's measurable. That's what the M stands for. You can track your progress and reevaluate along the way. Next is the A, which is attainable. You want to make sure it's realistic and challenging but not too intimidating. The R, Make sure it's relevant. Ensure that the goal serves a purpose. It makes sense to do this SMART goal, right?  Make sure it's applicable to your life. And that the goal is timely. Make a deadline and monitor your progress. Then re-evaluate. Similar to my process, the RISE process -  Realign, innovate, strategize, and excel.

You can incorporate the SMART goals into this, and you'll be able to stay on track and not get distracted.

Another option is to try something new. That's all you have to do. Try a new food. Try driving a different way to work. Explore a new neighborhood. Just try something new. Who knows? You might like it. 

The other thing that you could do is challenge your beliefs. Maybe there's some old beliefs that no longer serve you. I had beliefs about relationships around love. I thought it wasn't for me. I honestly pooh-poohed the idea of ever being in a successful relationship because I do not have the best track record. And I was what some would call a little bit jaded.

Then I met an incredible man and I tried to hold on to those beliefs, which did not serve me and it did not help the relationship. Once I started to shed those old beliefs and started to create some new healthier beliefs to what mirrored my current life and who was in my life, things really started to change.

Changing your beliefs can be incredibly empowering and a game-changer. 

You can also change your environment. Mix up your house or your apartment. Move furniture around. Get rid of some old furniture, buy some new furniture. Rearrange your closets, maybe organize your closets. I fall into that category too. It is a constant struggle, but just change up your environment a little bit. Maybe even start going for a walk or go for a hike, and that falls into the try something new category as well. Surround yourself with supportive people. You are who you hang out with. So choose wisely, definitely choose wisely.

We already discussed changing your routine. Get used to some uncertainty because life is full of uncertainty, and uncertainty does not hang out in the Comfort Zone. So if you've got more uncertainty in your life, by default, you're not spending a lot of time in the Comfort Zone. You're already leveling up.

A reminder that can be motivating is that choosing courage is a better option than comfort. It's important that we get comfortable being uncomfortable. Life comes at us and we can't control it. Letting go of some of that control as it pertains to outside forces is vital. The only thing we can control is our reaction to it.

Something else I'd like to mention is prioritizing sustainable, long-term efforts over short-term results. If you think about the tortoise and the hare story, do you remember that story? It was the race, and the tortoise jumped out of the gate, like sprung forward as soon as the gun went off, and he ended up just getting exhausted very, very early in the race. The tortoise just took his time and he cruised along and nobody could understand like why he wasn't moving faster, but he understood how to pace himself. And that's something that many of us overlook.

I think of doing something in the past, like changing something up or a goal that I've set, such as getting back into shape. Um, I think, oh my gosh, I'm just going to go right out, and I'm going to hop back into it, for instance, like running.  I haven't run in almost a year because I have a knee injury.

So, I'm tempted to want to go out and set some really, really lofty goal of running, you know, 10 miles in one week. To be honest, if I can run a quarter of a mile again without my knee hurting, I will be happy. But I have to make sure that I prioritize my health and not set myself up for failure and that shoots us back to the smart goals.

Does it even make sense in the first place? I have to make sure my knee is better, and I have to start building the muscles up around my knee and restructuring before I just jump right into a 10-mile run. It just doesn't make a lot of sense.

I want to do that, but the odds are I'll probably get hurt, and then I'll be discouraged, and then I'll make excuses. And then, I'll go back into the Comfort Zone, and I won't ever achieve the 10-mile goal because I did not pace myself. So that is one suggestion that I would like to throw out there is to prioritize sustainable long term efforts.

Because we do not want to go back to the Comfort Zone for most of our time, that safe, familiar space where we feel in control, because it can be the biggest obstacle standing between us and the life that we truly want. It's where dreams go to die. It's where growth stagnates and where regret festers, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Because when you learn to step outside of that Comfort Zone, incredible things start to happen. You'll discover reservoirs of courage, creativity, and resilience within yourself. You have an opportunity to push past self-imposed limitations, and you get the chance to open the door to experiences and achievements that you never thought possible.

So why not today try some of those suggestions that I threw out. Try to break free from the Comfort Zone trap because you have the ability to learn to identify fears and doubts that are holding you back and ways to reframe challenges more as opportunities as opposed to setbacks. The self-talk is so, so, so important. Make sure you are talking to yourself in an empowering way. Do not sell yourself short and prevent yourself from going to the next level. 

I'd like to throw a couple of recommendations out to you. Uh, one is Jen Sincero's Booster Confidence and Success. She is the best! Awesome! I recommend all of her material. The other is by Jessica Honneger. She created Noonday, and her book is incredibly inspiring. The title of her book is Imperfect Courage. 

Next week, we are going to discuss mastering the art of possibility thinking. 

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Escaping the Comfort Zone. 

I'd love for you to check out all the links and resources in the show notes, subscribe, share, and leave a rating with a review because that helps tremendously. I want you as part of this growing community; you can follow me on social media because that would be a great way to find out what fears you're facing or have faced. And if you'd like to share a comment, we've added a link in the description page. You can let me and other listeners know what you have to say. 

Until next week, keep reaching for the sky and never settle for less than what you can be. Take care, everyone. Go out and do something great today.