Are you tired of reading the same blog articles about ’50 comfort zone challenges to undertake’ or the ‘THE TOP 5 COMFORT ZONE CHALLENGES’? Or perhaps instead you’ve read 100 articles that give advice such as ‘Do it in small steps’ and ‘Allow yourself to be vulnerable.’ Either way what if I told you there was ONE comfort zone challenge that was better than all of these?

And that’s not to say that these articles aren’t great because they are. In fact, I’ve even written one myself here: Escape Your Comfort Zone. But there’s only one problem. And that is they address the symptoms and not the cause.

When you go through a 50 comfort zone challenge list and tick them all off. What’s going to happen?

At first, you’re going to feel more confident in yourself and that you have accomplished a lot… And you have. I’m not going to take that away because doing one of those lists is great. But after time when you’ve forgotten about how much the list has pushed you forward, you’re only going to fall back into the same comfort zone you’ve had before. Until you decide to undertake another 50 comfort zone challenge list. Or something of the sort.

Why This Comfort Zone Challenge Is Different

There is a challenge that you can try. And let me tell you right now, that it’s not easy. It takes a lot of commitment. And you have to remind yourself every day, that you are doing this challenge. If you’re looking for a quick fix this isn’t for you. But in the long-term neither is a quick fix. The real challenge here is changing your mindset.

Because while there are GREAT tips that you can use AND should use in the beginning (like comfort zone tips and challenge ideas). This is the real challenge that gets you stepping out of your comfort zone AGAIN and AGAIN. If you really take this challenge to heart and practice it EVERY DAY. You are going to be met with an amazing life.

The Comfort Zone Challenge

So what is the comfort zone challenge?

Well, to put it simply it’s to start putting focus on your actions instead of the outcome. Because every time you are scared to do something new it’s because you’re placing fear on the outcome of what’s going to happen. You might hear reasons pop into your head about why you shouldn’t do something such as:

“What if people laugh at me or think I’m weird”, “What if I fail” and how about “What if I don’t like it”

…What if, what if, what if. How often do you hear yourself saying ‘what if’ right before you back down from something you want to do. And you’re not the only person. Everybody does it.

The Challenge

So this is the challenge. From now on every time you want to do something. Focus on the feeling you’ll get from JUST taking the action. Because if you focus on the outcome, chances are you’re going to talk yourself out of it.

And focusing on the action instead of the outcome couldn’t be summed up more perfectly than in this video:

If you can’t watch this video for whatever reason, then it’s about focusing on action over outcome dependency. In it, Elliot Hulse talks about hearing a bird singing in a tree. You might wake up in the morning and absolutely HATE the birds singing. You may want to throw a rock at it or go out there and shut it up. On the other hand, you might wake up and LOVE the way the bird is singing. It brightens up your day and makes you feel grateful that you’ve got another day on Earth.

BUT either way, the bird couldn’t give a fuck about what you think of his singing. You might love it or you might hate it. The only thing that matters to the bird is the action of singing. That’s the level you need to get too.

Your Values

For this, to work you need to change your values. You need to have a set of values for yourself that stop you worrying about the outcome of situations and actions. An important one for me is to ‘always go where I’m going to grow the most, even if it’s hard or uncomfortable’.

I’ve had times in my life where on a level I really didn’t want to do something. Because I was nervous and worried that I’d look stupid or fail. And to be honest, sometimes I did. My biggest fear used to be approaching people in a club. Approaching a girl and trying to have a conversation with her terrified me. And I think this an anxiety a lot of people have.

But when I looked at it more I realized. I wasn’t afraid of talking to somebody at a club. I was afraid of the outcome, being rejected and looking stupid. And that’s when I decided that even if that happened, even IF I look stupid, I had to do it anyway because no matter what I would grow from that experience.

And guess what, I did get rejected… loads of times. I’m not going to say the idea of getting rejected doesn’t bother me because it does. But the difference is now I don’t focus on getting rejected. I focus on having the conversation because that’s what I WANT to do. the outcome is unimportant to me.

So from now on

Instead of thinking “What if people laugh at me or think I’m weird” start thinking “I want to say this/do this/act this way because that is simply what I want to do regardless of the outcome”. Instead of thinking “What if I fail” instead think “If I fail or if I succeed it’s not important, the important thing for me is taking the action because it aligns with my values”.

The Benefit of This Comfort Zone Challenge

The benefit of this challenge is that you are going to have a VALID and WORTHY reason to step out of your comfort zone. In fact, if ‘enjoying the process and action instead of worrying about the outcome’ become one of your principles in life. Not only are you going to have far more experience in life. You’re also going to enjoy yourself a lot more. And do things, go places and meet people you never thought it would be possible to meet.

I hope after reading everything you can see how important it is to shift your focus from outcomes to action. Because at the end of the day, you are never going to control the outcome of any situation. You could go into a situation you are completely confident and a curveball could be thrown that completely throws you off. And on the other hand, something you think is a stretch out of your comfort zone could, in fact, be second nature to you!

If you are interested in more topics about the comfort zone check out:

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