Confort zone essay

Ana Rita Camões Ferreira Nª 56391 Língua Estrangeira II – Inglês

Getting out of the Comfort Zone

I am going to start this essay by explaining the reason why I chose to speak about Getting out of your Comfort Zone.

For the last two months, I have been analysing my life choices throughout the years. Both personal and professional choices and I realised that I am who I am today because I have always pushed myself out of my Comfort Zone. I’ve never stayed there for too long.

So what is this thing called Comfort Zone? It’s our safe place, where we feel comfortable, secure, at a very low risk. It’s that place where everything and everyone is familiar and we really don’t feel any fear or anxiety while in it. Our daily routines are a part of our Comfort Zone. While we are there, we are stagnant, no growth is happening.

Why is it so hard to leave our Comfort Zone? Because the unknown is scary! It makes us very uncomfortable. Raises our stress levels and it is just easier to keep playing it safe and keep on doing what we are already so familiar with.

Throughout my 34 years of life I have lived in six different cities, in four different countries, have travelled alone, purchased two homes, foreclosed on one of them, gotten married, built a family, gotten a divorce, changed jobs, done public speaking, gone back to university and still feel that there is so much more left for me to do and to experience. All of these experiences have one thing in common: Fear! I was very afraid I was going to fail, but the desire to accomplish bigger and better things gave me the courage to move forward.

Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I failed. Either way I felt that that was the path I had to follow. But this was never easy! Many times I questioned myself, doubted myself, but took a leap of faith and went for it.

Being in our Comfort Zone is good for a while. We also need to be in our Comfort Zone from time to time. It gives us the opportunity to see what we have accomplished and to appreciate it.

The greatest thing for me about getting out of our Comfort Zone is that every time we push out of it, it grows. The more we push out of our comfort zone, the bigger it gets. For example, next time I have to go to a job interview, it won’t be as scary as it was the first time. Some parts of that experience will be familiar already.

While doing some research for this essay, I found a questionnaire that measures our comfort zone (www.whatismycomfortzone.com). It was divided into three parts: the personal, the professional and the adrenaline survey. I

scored high on both personal (90%) and professional (72%), but I must admit that on the adrenaline survey I was at 39% out of 100%.

So what are the steps that we should take to get out of our Comfort Zone?

First we need to believe in ourselves. “Yes, I can!” needs to become our motto.

Second we need to challenge ourselves. We already believe we can do it. So now we need to have a goal that will push us out of what is comfortable.

Third we need to change our negativity “chip”. Positive thoughts create positive actions! Taking risks is the only way to grow, but if we keep thinking that we are going to fail, well… we really are!

Fourth we need to take small steps, we can’t stretch it too much, because otherwise it is just going to create a panic zone, where we will feel overwhelmed and simply too stressed to be productive.

And what do we gain from pushing ourselves out of our Comfort Zone?

We become more confident.

We raise our self-esteem.

We become more and more comfortable with discomfort.

We learn to deal better with unexpected situations.

We become a better, stronger, newer version of ourselves.

So I am going to keep on pushing myself out of my Comfort Zone, because to me, being stagnant is not an option. While I’m here, in this world, I want to continue growing and hopefully I can inspire others to do the same.

Webgraphy: http://www.whatismycomfortzone.com http://bobdempsey.org/6-powerful-steps-to-leave-your-comfort-zone/ http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2015/03/29/why-leaving-your-comfortzone-can-be-so-rewarding/#gref