Leave Your Comfort Zone…

I did love being in my comfort zone, it felt safe and cushy.  My daily work routine at my lovely office was the same, the surrounding was all so familiar.  After work, I’d go for drinks and dinner with friends.  This went on for a good couple of years. 

Then I got frustrated with work and wondered what the purpose was.  It was the same old routine every day, dealt with the same issues repeatedly but with different clients.  I was in a safe job with no risk which meant no change and no new challenges. 

I was so comfy that I held myself hostage from growing both professionally and personally.  Somewhere at the back of my mind I always knew I couldn’t stay in this comfy zone forever, yet I always ignored that little voice inside of my head, even though I knew I wasn’t happy and needed to get away.     

What was the reason that stopped me from listening to that little voice?  

Now I know….it was something called Fear.   Something that I ignored because life was easier to not to think about it than to think about it.  Particularly when I couldn’t talk about many things that went on in my mind because I couldn’t figure it out myself, how else was I supposed to talk about it with anyone else?   

Fear allowed me to find excuses to refrain from recognising what the core issues were.  I couldn’t see the road ahead and I was afraid to start something new.  The longer Fear stayed with me, the more of my stress levels and anxiety increased and created adverse effects in my physical body.    

In time, my self-confidence level started to decline, my ability to make decision became weak, I often agreed with other people’s opinions and didn’t have much say of my own.  Better way of putting it, I self-doubted frequently and I often worried of how other perceived me.   I couldn’t stop myself from falling simply because I struggled to comprehend what was happening to me or how to survive. All I felt was that the authentic me was slipping away and I couldn’t find me again.  

These terrible feelings went on for a while until I met my coach (ICF MCC) who saw my struggles in my personal and professional life, so I got coached.  I didn’t know who she was at the time or what coaching was all about, but I certainly did not expect the outcome of our meeting would turn my life around in such a compelling way; she realigned my mindset, helped me to gain new insights, set positive objectives and held myself accountable of all the new visions that poured out of me.  This coaching session was an experience that I would be forever grateful for, my coach did something kind and supportive without asking for anything in return.   

In hindsight, only if I met my coach at an earlier stage of my life, things might have been very different.  Fear took more than my self-confidence from me, it took away one of the most valuable things in our life, Time.  Only if I knew then, I would have done things very differently or… might not have – who would have known?!  Let’s live in the present moment and not to think about the “what if” scenario. 

But one thing I’m sure that I would not do again, is to let myself to remain too long in the comfort zone and let Fear bother me again!  Right now, at this very moment as I’m writing, Fear is sitting right next to me once again.  But I am going to step out of the zone right now to take care of the issue that had been playing at the back of my mind.   

IT’S OK to make the same mistake as I did but learn from it or you could learn from my mistake; listen to yourself and step out of your comfort zone to face Fear.  Either way, we would need to step into the learning zone before growing but the latter one would save you an awful lot of valuable time.

Thank you PHRS for the image used for this blog.