“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford
There’s a poster quote: Great things never came from comfort zones. Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of hiding away in our comfort zones from time to time. Comfort zones are safe, familiar places where nothing unexpected is going to happen. But, that’s the problem, if nothing happens, then nothing changes.
If your life is not what you want it to be, then carrying on doing the same things can only bring you the same outcomes. If you want things to be different, you’re going to need to do things differently – and that means change. The problem for most of us is that we fear change. Doing things differently means stepping away from everything that’s safe and familiar, so to change means to take a risk, and it’s fair to say that many of us are risk-averse, right?
We can fear change because we fear the unknown, but let’s just think about that for a moment. Why should the unknown be something to fear(We are talking about performance not going into a darkened jungle full of potential risks to life) ? Well, it all begins with the way you think. A fear of the unknown is very often linked to a fear of failure. Fear allows negative thoughts to creep to the forefront of your mind. You fear making a change because the nagging voice of doubt fills your head with thoughts such as, “What if I fail?” or, “What if I can’t do this?” and those thoughts paralyse you, stopping you in your tracks before you take that “risky” step out of your comfort zone.
Of course, great things never came from comfort zones, so how do you push through the fear to take the all-important first step out of there? The answer is found in changing the way you think. Change the negative train of thoughts that lead to inaction, for positive trains of thought that lead to positive actions being taken. Ask yourself, “What if I succeed?”
Stepping out of your comfort zone doesn’t need to be a scary leap into the abyss. Confidence grows from taking small steps in the direction you want to go in, so bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be with manageable stepping-stones. Henry Ford wisely said that doing the same things can only bring you the same outcomes, but he also said, “One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn’t do.”
If you want to discover what you can do, all you need to do is take that first step.
Don MacNaughton is a High-Performance Coach and has worked tirelessly to help clients achieve success in the world of sport and business over the past 15 years. The next, highly popular, NLP Diploma and Life Coaching Certificate course starts in April 2019. Click here for more information or to sign up.