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Can you remember that thing that was hugely fearful for you?

You stalled and delayed and made excuses and wasted a heap of energy justifying why you didn’t need to do it until – for whatever reason – you did it AND you didn’t explode in a fiery ball of annihilation by anxiety or embarrassment or stress.

In fact, there’s a fair chance your main takeaway – in hindsight – was “WOW, it really wasn’t that bad, why did I waste so much time and energy stuck in my comfort zone avoiding the action I knew could bring about a great result?”

Whether it’s getting up to dance at those daggy school socials and then later at your favourite club or perhaps giving a presentation to a room full of people or maybe rocking into a networking group…

99.9% of the time you’re going to be ok.

That’s why I believe you need to wage a daily battle with the comfort zone beast. And so do I.

In todays show I’m weighing in on on: Why Your Comfort Zone Is Keeping You Stuck.

The double edged sword of your comfort zone is that although it’s there to keep you safe it will absolutely also keep you stuck if you let it.

The comfort zone beast – that’s how I like to view it as it helps me not want to hang with it – is opposed to any change which also means it hates progression.

That beast would like to keep you at boring old status quo.

It’ll cling to familiar actions and habits which makes it unwilling to give more effective actions a chance. 

Yep, comfort zone beast would like to stop you from taking any risks and in doing so prevent you from your true potential.

The thing is for most of us – living outside our comfort zone – is initially, well UN-comfortable!

The solution I suggest is two-fold:

ONE: My old friend, The Reframe.  

What if you were to believe that everything inside your comfort zone = UN-comfortable?

Zero progress, missed opportunities and disheartening results could be pretty UN-comfortable right?

Once you get out of your comfort zone you will look back to see that your comfort zone wasn’t so comfortable.

However I don’t expect you (or me) to slay the comfort zone beast in one foul swoop. The next step is,

TWO: A series of small daily, Comfort Zone Expanding Wins. 

Here are some examples in relation to your health goal:

1. Ask for an adjustment to the menu even though you’re the only one that does. Most restaurants will oblige and the people you’re dining with aren’t judging you… and if they are judging you for green veg instead of greasy chips and boring lettuce with your protein then find some new dinner buddies.

2. Try that new work-out or exercise or absolutely if you still haven’t found your way outta-comfortable-cardio-land-to-the-wonderful-weights-floor DO IT TODAY.

A have a caveat with regard to killer exercises to try – just one – Kettle-bell suicide was nearly that for me.

I gave it a whirl because I can get fairly comfortable with my fav dumbbell and barbell work…

Kettle-bell suicide starts by grabbing 2 kettle bells (my first mistake was going for light kettles at 8 kilo’s each which have a TINY bottom circumference to balance on… you know where this is going right?)

The move goes like this: suitcase dead-lift, burpee, push up, renegade row, burpee, clean, press….

However, on my third rep I threw in an UN-recommended face-plant-from-renegade-row.

The boys I work with were sure I’d broken my wrist – however thankfully it was A-ok – and I’m never going near that hideous exercise again… the risk is just too high for the potential benefit!

3. Ask for more information when there’s something you’d like to try and you’re not sure how to go about it. Maybe it’s one of those new exercises or how to cook something a particular way or any matter of things. The point is, if you’re anything like me you might feel uncomfortable asking for help when really that’s stupid because most of us LOVE to be able to give help so why shouldn’t it work both ways?

4. Announce your goal and why achieving it is vital and life-changing to you, to the people closest to you or even in an online community. 

Is the comfort zone beast reaching out for you at the mere mention of this example?

That’s because it wants to keep you stuck – it doesn’t like the thought of everyone closest to you knowing about and also supporting and helping you to achieve your goal.

To make today actionable I love for you to share something in relation to your health goal that used to be out of your comfort zone – and now you’re completely ok with it – and perhaps a little bemused at why it took you so long to just give it a whirl.  In sharing via the comments below you’re going to be helping other people see what no longer needs to keep them stuck in their comfort zone. You’re also reminding yourself of the progress you’ve made.

That’s it for me today.

In Thursday Training, tomorrow I’m covering: 6 Work-out Mistakes That Keep You Stuck.

If you liked this you’ll also like: 6 Fat Blasting Moves and How They Relate To Your Best Fat Loss Mindset:

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.