There is this common belief among coaches, counselors, mentors and experts that going out of your comfort zone is the only thing that brings you growth. I’d like to present another alternative and I will explain why.
What a comfort zone actually is
Your comfort zone consists of all the areas combined where you feel safe, masterful and skilled. Your comfort zone is an expression of your self confidence and self image. It isn’t just comfortable, it’s where you feel you are standing on solid ground and from where you confidently speak your truth.
Let’s say you are trying to build a business doing what other people have succeeded with by following their 10-step system and it isn’t working. You try again and again and again, and you fail again and again…you get the picture. Now you’re starting to feel desperate and questioning your own true ability. You wonder why these systems seem to work for everybody else but why don’t they work for you? Your self confidence drops. You feel unclear about what to do and whom to trust. You begin to question if you should be in business at all. However, relax, we all have to start somewhere. Giving up is like watching a toddler falling all the time learning to walk, and you are thinking ”Oh, this kid is probably never going walk.”
All power comes from within
When making decisions or doing something that is crucial for your business, it’s important to be in your comfort zone. You don’t want to make decisions when nervous or having a panic attack. You want to make your decisions from a place of confidence and calmness.
It’s essential to go outside of your comfort zone to learn new things. You’re not supposed to stay there, though. The magic actually does not happen outside of your comfort zone. It happens when you bring the new things you learned out there, and apply them to everything you already know.
The real best kept secret
Building a business and succeeding isn’t magical, nor is it a miracle. If you believe it can happen for you, it will. Building a successful business is about two things: a lot of learned new skills added to your existing ones, and most importantly, adopting a growth mindset. Meaning, if you need a mindset shift, but you don’t know exactly what is required to build a business, shifting your mindset isn’t enough. If you know in theory what it takes to build a business, but you’re afraid to stretch yourself, you probably won’t succeed either.
There’s another best kept secret, too. It won’t happen in a day, a week, a month or possibly a year. Building any business takes time, hard work, and all the while you’re comfort zone just gets bigger and bigger…which brings us back to the state of comfort.
As you grow, your comfort zone grows
Some people have a really wide comfort zone, some have a jagged somewhat scattered comfort zone, while others have a very narrow comfort zone. We feel safe when we’re in our comfort zone. This can be explained with an analogy of food. As we grow up, most of our parents taught us to like different kinds of food by making us eat them over and over again. After a while, we started to like them as they became more familiar. Most people will surprise themselves when they realize something they never used to like all of a sudden actually tastes ok, in fact, it even starts to taste great. So, if you weren’t exposed to many foods growing up and your diet was limited to mainly hamburgers or pizza, you’ll naturally be a bit skeptical about trying new or even foreign foods. There is a massive buffet out there to pick and choose from…you just have to step up to the table.
I’d like to suggest it’s the same way with your comfort zone. If you’re exposed to new adventures, new situations and have learned that it’s ok to feel a little insecure while going through a new learning curve, then doing something new outside your comfort zone won’t be such a big discomfort for you. When you transfer this thought to business, meaning, if you try something over and over, you must trust that you will eventually get the hang of it. It’s just like walking. Every time you try it becomes a little more familiar to you so the task gradually gets a little easier. At some point you subconsciously add it into your comfort zone of business skills, and it becomes comfortable from that point on.
Learn, grow, thrive, succeed
The more you learn and practice, your comfort zone will actually grow and become even more solid. All of a sudden, you’ll know you’ve mastered marketing your services. All of the pieces will begin to come together, and you now know how to sell your services. Whatever you are doing is now finally working with ease. Expecting to succeed outside of your uncomfortable zone might make you feel obligated to give away too much, reduce your prices out of desperation, or get yourself trapped into working all hours. Ultimately, those things make getting your business up and running even harder.
You’ll burnt out AND you won’t have really learned anything in the process. So yes! Step outside of your comfort zone. Learn. Expect to make mistakes and plan to keep doing it over and over again. This is how we learn. This is how we trhive.
Bring your new skills into your comfort zone and practise. Practice makes mastery and the more you use your new skills combined with what you already know, the faster and wider your business comfort zone will become. The better decision you make. And the faster your business hits new levels of growth and success.
Jamie Siv Rognstad has been a marketing manager, working with branding, communication and marketing for more than 30 years. She has an education in marketing management, communication strateghies, dramaturgy and critical theory, she is a photographer, writer and dramaturg. She is a certified business coach and money mindset coach, and teaches coaches, therapists, mentors and experts how to build a sustainable business and brand it based on their own strengths. Jamie has staged several readings and performances at Det Åpne Teater and Soria under Moria Teater, and written two large manuscripts that are published and staged in Norway. She has written hundreds of theatre critics and blog articles about theatre performances, lifestyle, self development, spirituality, branding, marketing and communication. She is a driven spokesperson for your own inner guru, for people using their true strengths and trust themselves in everything from business building and manifestation to spiritual and mental growth, in brandingrevolusjonen (https://www.facebook.com/BrandingRevolusjonen.no/) and https://jamiesiv.no/ and http://jamiesiv.com/ where she teaches people that branding comes from within, and that if you start using your essence and true strentghs, you will stand out in your market and shine like you have no competition. She is aiming at inspiring and empowering women of all ages to step up and step into their level of strengths and power, to use their knowledge and expertise to thrive in their life and business – and to help other people within their area of expertise.
