Comfort Zones & Limiting Beliefs
Photo taken by Jared Winslow
The term “comfort zone”, brings up different ideas and feelings to everyone who reads it. What feels like a stretch to one person, might be everyday to someone else. The smallest thing to one, might be the scariest to another, and so on.
Up until 6 months ago, I was dying to even just spend a day in New York City. I’d been a handful of times before, but never by myself. I had so many fears surrounding it. “What if I get on the wrong train.” “What if something happens.” “What if I don’t know what to do when I get there.” All of it felt like such a big deal, and all of these reasons were enough to hold me back for years. I kept putting it off…until I literally turned 25. Something clicked in the shower one day, and I finally realized that time isn’t slowing down.
For some reason, the idea of taking the train was terrifying. I think just because I had never done it alone. It’s always the first step that feels the scariest. And guess what, I got to the train station, literally just asked someone what train to get on, and it was fine. I saw a quote recently that stuck with me that said, “Our brains are designed to keep us safe, not to keep us happy.” We’re so much more capable than we give ourselves credit for, and more capable of what our brains makes us believe we are.
I had never taken the train by myself, never taken the subway, never been to the city by myself, so many firsts have happened in my last few visits to New York that I was afraid of, and it’s been a beautiful thing.
Underneath the insecurities, beyond our comfort zone, and past the fears and limiting beliefs, is who we want to be, who we’re meant to be. We just have to take the first step, and break the barrier that gets in our way.
So I ask you, what’s something you’ve done recently that was outside of your comfort zone? How did you feel after? And if there’s something you’re thinking about right now that you haven’t done yet, please, let this be the article that makes you take that first step. And remember, there is no such thing as “failure”, only lessons learned.
