Lewis Howes, a former pro-athlete who had to turn his life around after a career ending injury, once said that “Greatness is living life outside of your comfort zone”. Howes knows something about what it means to get out of your comfort zone and why this is important to achieving success. He went from living on his sisters couch to launching his world famous and highly successful podcast podcast/show “The School of Greatness” which has over 100 million downloads and is helping people around the world overcome their challenges and find their greatness.
In part 1 of this blog series, I talked about how we must invite change into our lives by strengthening our courage and how this influences our choices, which in turn matters to our success. For instance, Lewis Howes could have chosen to stay on his sister’s couch feeling sorry for himself after his injury and waited for things to change forever. Instead, he chose to get outside this COMFORT ZONE, which led to great success. In this second installment of the January blog series, we are going to be taking a closer look at why it is important to get outside your comfort zone and how we go about it.
Why is it so important for us to push ourselves to get out of our comfort zone? Well, if Howe’s story is not enough to get you MO’tivated let me share with you some more interesting findings. A recent study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that encouraging people to engage in activities outside their comfort zone and keeping a record of their daily activities boosted their life satisfaction. Even more interesting, it was found that the benefits of the intervention was strongest for people who went outside their comfort zone by helping others.
We might understand why we need to get outside our comfort zone, but there are so many who chose to stay within their comfort zone. In part 1 of this blog series, I shared that approximately 95 percent of society settles for far less than they want in life. The reason many people have difficulty MO’ving out of their comfort zone to a new level of success is the fear of failure and rejection and worries about the discomfort that comes from doing something different or new. It may seem easier to stay inside the comfort zone where things are safe, comfortable, peaceful and we feel in control. But just think about all that you will sacrifice. To step outside our comfort zone requires us to face our fears – there is no getting around it – and, in order to be successful in overcoming those fears, we need to find and fire up our courage.
In part 1 of this blog series, I introduced COURAGE as “the choice and willingness to confront uncertainty, fear or intimidation”. Courage was essential to following the 7 steps for S.U.C.C.E.S.S. I shared such as “Understanding the obstacles” and “Embracing the challenge”. If there is one thing to focus on, make a commitment to cultivating your COURAGE. It’s the key factor you need to take the first step and keep the MO’mentum going so you keep MO’ving on your road to success.
“Courage to be …” also happens to be canfitpro’s 30th-anniversary theme. I’m excited to see how we can build this theme towards the canfitpro Global Conference and Trade Show happening August 16 – 20, 2023! Let’s see how we can collectively strengthen our courage and step outside our comfort zone as we head toward the event. Trust me, working together will be so much easier and we will be so much more successful in facing our fears and inspiring each other to greatness this year!
Stay tuned for next week’s post in this four-part blog series to kick-off 2023 to inspire you with tools for S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and suggestions to increase your level of personal development. Each week we will look at a different key word and principle to help you MO’ve forward in 2023 to achieve success!
Enjoy the journey my friends and watch for part 3 of this blog series HERE!
