I was listening to a podcast today where the fellow was talking about comfort zones and how to picture them. The way that he explained it was that to be comfortable you need to have a top and a bottom level to your comfort zone and when you get close to either you start to feel uncomfortable.
I have never heard it explained this way. I alway think that we have barriers to break through but in this analogy the guy was saying if you feel pretty good you will grab that piece of cake, if you feel not so good compared to the top of your comfort zone then you will pass on it.
I like cake, but the example is great when we take emotions out of the equation.
So really what you want to do to break through your barrier in this example is to say – “I want to lose 5 pounds, this will be uncomfortable but I will pass on the next 20 pieces of cake to do this”
Does that make sense?
I sometimes stumble personally because I will break down things like this logically. Workout, eating, food type or exercise type decisions are all rational but when the time comes is when the emotion comes. The stress of getting out of that comfort zone.
Getting out of your comfort zone, the way I look at it is simply to hold your breath and jump. There is no way that we are going to avoid stress or discomfort and those really are the emotional side of breaking through your barriers, let that be, know you will be uncomfortable, and do it anyway.
I can give a great example and that is my workout schedule. I love to and know that I have to workout hard and heavy. These workouts make the difference between me being in ok shape and being in great shape. But to do these workouts means that I have to make it to the gym and then once there I need to lift as heavy as I can. I know that there are many excuses that I can make so I try to just set a time to go and then not even think twice about hitting the gym. I know that thinking twice about going to the gym means that I am going to be able to come up with great and useful excuses not to go. Very easy for me to skip with a huge headful of excuses.
Once I hit the gym there are still chances not to give it my all and I have to admit sometimes I don’t get that last rep in our skip the last set.
The important thing to remember though is that everything you do is the most important thing at that moment. If you can just make the little change, just this once, it proves to your brain that change is in fact possible.
So in the end I say this. Figure out what is truly important to change, find out what your real challenge is, you know the thing that makes you scared and nervous, and push through. Prove to your emotions AND your brain that you can push your boundaries that one inch farther.
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So a couple weeks ago I met with the transplant doctor and he approved me for transplanting a kidney to my daughter as soon as her kidney level drops to 15% (probably in a few months) and he also found a spot on my lung in an xray that he suspects is not cancerous and is sending me for another chest xray in 4 months. Trouble is that I was not as excited as I should be about the kidney, and not at all worried about the spot on my lung.
