Change is fundamental and necessary when we no longer want to be where we are. Whether it is the position you hold, your career, your relationship, the city or country you live in. It applies to anything we can call our comfort zone. I would love to say that step out of the comfort zone is not scary, but it is.

For this reason, many people cannot leave this cozy and safe place that does not offer risks, a place that is only comfortable in name.

There is nothing wrong with you wanting to stay where you are, it's just that life doesn't just happen inside this little box called the comfort zone.

But security is an illusion. In a second everything can change. So, believe me, the comfort zone is far from being a comfortable place. Only outside of it can we grow, transform, create and change.

Make an intimate, personal assessment of your life exactly as it is today. Forget the colorful life you lead on social media.

So, evaluate your life as it really is. In which areas are you happy? And in which aspects are you dissatisfied? Where are you stuck? What can be done to change this?

What it is and how to get out of the comfort zone

It is the expression that refers to the "mental" place where we remain, resisting changes and challenges. In other words, it is everything we are used to doing, thinking or feeling, it is the usual, the known to ourselves and that does not cause any kind of fear, anxiety or risk. As if it were a perfect, safe place.

In fact, those who stay in the comfort zone are afraid of change, are prevented from developing their creativity, are not open to new discoveries, become complacent and conform to their already routine life.

In this place, people usually don't allow themselves to dream, are afraid of traveling, getting to know new places, other cultures, food, don't like to leave home, and avoid making new friends. With this, they end up becoming systematic.

These people like to be in control of the situation, or they think they are taking little risk, they don't allow themselves new discoveries.

What few people know is that this comfort zone is not comfortable at all. However, you stay in your comfort zone only because you have in it behaviors and situations that are known to you, but not necessarily good.

There is no guarantee of happiness

Thus, the idea of being in the comfort zone is not a guarantee of happiness, and even less so, that bad situations will not be faced.

On the contrary: we can become accustomed to behaviors and situations that make us unhappy, just because they are known and familiar.

Staying in your comfort zone certainly limits you from making discoveries, rediscovering yourself, and realizing what you are capable of. So life begins where your comfort zone ends.

It takes a certain amount of confidence to get out of a situation or place that is known, habitual, as long as you are in your "comfort zone" you are not learning, nor growing.

Think... doing what you always do will get you what you always get.

In this way, no one is born with an instruction manual for life, despite all the advice from our parents, each of us must make our own choices and our own way in the world, there are no guarantees.

Doing your best, making mistakes, getting it right, But if you get scared and try to avoid making them you will certainly miss many opportunities

Life would be no fun if everything were the same and if circumstances were always the same. It challenges us at every moment to get out of our comfort zone and go in search of what really completes us and gives meaning to our existence.

How to get out of the comfort zone

Dare

If we want to learn or change something, we have to leave the known, the comfortable place and venture into the unknown. This implies taking a certain risk, because we don't know what will happen or if we will be able to handle it, if we will be able to control the situation. But to know the results that will come from your actions, only you can do it.

Also read: Rigidity: How to get around the feeling and be more flexible

Get out of the sameness

Think of all the achievements you have had in your life, surely most if not all the results happened when you did something new, and not by practicing your old habits.

Over time, we build habits that trap us in a supposed comfort zone that prevents us from reaching our full potential. In this way, these habits end up determining what we think and can do. If you allow these habits to control your own life, you will get caught in your own web, paralyzing yourself.

Opine

If you are not in the habit of speaking up, challenge yourself to speak up: during a work meeting, in a college class, or at a bar table. Dare to ask a pertinent question, comment on the subject, and give your opinion. If you feel embarrassed, shy, start little by little.

Also read: Emotional Poisoning: What it is and how to avoid it

Make Decisions

When you become aware that the only thing that was missing was making the decision, and that you are actually capable of doing much more than you believed, you automatically increase your confidence in yourself. Then you will begin to accomplish everything that you were afraid of at first.

So think less, act more. With time and with your attitudes, you will realize that you can actually go much further than you allowed yourself to go, and you will feel self-confidence and high self-esteem.

Live the here and now

Experiencing the here and now is a form of wholeness. When we focus our efforts, attention, and enthusiasm on the present moment, we have a sense of personal fulfillment. Stepping out of the comfort zone leaves no room for anything other than attending to the present. Challenge, attention, and commitment, you will need to overcome this stage that is before you.

Motivate different emotions

We should motivate different emotions than the ones we are feeling. This will help to leave the emotional state that we are uncomfortable with. And don't worry about what others think or may think.

To reflect on the comfort zone

When we install a single point of view without realizing it, we fail to perceive several other angles of reality, possibly more fruitful and interesting. Thus, leaving the comfort zone allows us to approach new ways of looking and seeing life. This translates into greater flexibility in our appreciations and our way of living. In other words, we become more adaptable, and with greateradaptability and more ability to solve any difficult situation.

There are things that we cannot change, but when we become aware of them, we have the choice to give them a new meaning, possibly changing only our look and our interpretation.

Therapy is key in this process of self-knowledge and acceptance, it will provide you with tools and acceptance to realize that when things go wrong we need different attitudes, this includes making decisions and accepting that life does have its unforeseen events.

Linda Vieira - Clinical Psychologist with Phenomenological-Existential approach. Experience in: depression, phobias, stress, anxiety, sexuality, relationships and fears. Partner in the Tecnonutri Weight Loss Program.