OVER THE EDGE

HOW TO BREAK OUT OF THE

COMFORT ZONE

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Table of content

Introduction ............................................................... 3
About the comfort zone .............................................. 4
The risk of staying inside of the comfort zone ............. 7
The benefits of leaving the comfort zone ..................... 8
How to break out of the comfort zone? ...................... 11
Building the habit of experiencing the new ............... 16

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Introduction
“Life begins at the end of the comfort zone.”
This is one of the most famous Neale Donald
Walsch quotes and there's a good chance that you
heard it before. But what the comfort zone really is
and what is this magical place just outside of it?
What is its nature and how does it work? What will
be different if I dare to take a step out of it? What
will happen if I stay where I am? If I make the de-
cision to break out, where do I even start? These
are all the questions that this eBook is trying to an-
swer.
It's here to help you understand what the com-
fort zone is, what the benefits of stepping over its
edge are and how to break out of it. This book is
for the people who made the decision to better
themselves and try new things but always get stuck
at some point, maybe during the planning maybe
just before the execution.
If you are wondering can you trust
the information, the ideas, the methods the tips
and tricks presented here, I have good news
for you. You are holding the proof right now. This
book is the most obvious proof I can show you. Let
me explain.

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I was a chronic procrastinator. I always had
projects in my life, but I never saw them thru.
There was always one point when I got stuck and
this was often just before the execution or the do-
ing phase. You have no idea how many unfinished
ideas and plans are on the pages of the notebooks I
wrote in my life. But with time, I realized the rea-
son behind all this. The next step I had to take was
always out of my comfort zone. After this, I spend
time on reading up on the topic, looking for stud-
ies, methods and answers. What I got helped me
break out of my comfort zone and these findings
are all collected in this eBook.

About the comfort zone

According to Judith Bardwick, the comfort
zone is a behavioral state where a person operates
in an anxiety-neutral position. To make it simpler
the comfort zone is a cluster of things and actions
that you do with ease and with low or no anxiety.
Things that you feel comfortable doing are in your
comfort zone. Things that you are not comfortable
doing is outside of your comfort zone. But how
does this work, how does this affects your life?
First of all, there are a number of basic actions
that you do every day. You do them without hesita-

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tion or anxiety. Things like waking up in the morn-
ing or brushing your teeth. These actions are in-
side of your comfort zone. But are you anx-
ious talking to a stranger on an interview or found-
ing a company? Do you feel discomfort before do-
ing a bungee-jump or learning to drive? For some
people, these actions seem natural and for some, it
may seem terrifying because we all have different
comfort zones.
Somewhere between the things we do with
ease and the things that make us panic, there is a
thin layer that we will just call the learning zone
for now. What is this layer is all about?

Studies show that to have a small amount of

stress is actually beneficial. According to Rob-
ert Yerkes and John Dodson performance increas-

5
es with anxiety up to a point, but from there, per-
formance will plummet. The graph shown here
was first published in 1908 and it is often referred
to as Yerkes-Dodson bell.

While you are in the state of mind your

productivity and learning ability is enhanced. This
is the learning zone. Here you are already experi-
encing something new and you feel a small amount
of discomfort. Just remember the first few days of
grade school, work or college. You felt uncertainty
or maybe even fear. This is completely normal
when experiencing something outside of the com-
fort zone, but the negative feelings will fade as you
step out more and more often.
There is another way to interpret the results of
the Yerkes-Dodson experiments: a totally stress-
free environment has significantly lower produc-
tivity compared to one with a constant, small
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amount of stress level. This means while you are in
your comfort zone, you are underperforming and
underachieving. Can you afford to be an undera-
chiever?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the
comfort zone is bad. I'm saying that spending your
entire life there is bad. Returning to the comfort
zone to rest and to process the experiences is
something you have to do from time to time. Don't
think about this as the only options are A or B, but
more like a pendulum. A pendulum, that is in con-
stant motion, visiting both the outside and the in-
side of the comfort zone.

The risk of staying inside of the

comfort zone for the rest of your life
Stopping experiencing new stuff is a highly
risky thing, if not the riskiest. Not just because you
are not giving your 100%, but life will only get
harder as well. Life will constantly throw more and
more problems, issues and discomfort at you. If
you stay in the safe zone you will never learn how
to deal with this discomfort and you will have an
extremely hard life. You will never know how to
deal with hard situations, how to adapt and how to
come out on top. Life will bring discomfort from
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time to time. The only question is will you be ready
when it happens? I urge you to train for those
moments with the ideas presented here, in this
book.
As life goes by and you are not making an ef-
fort to expand your boundaries your comfort zone
will shrink. It will shrink to a point where it will
become suffocating. Just think about it. We all
know an elderly person whose comfort zone
shrunk so much over the past few decades, that the
edge of their comfort zone is basically their house's
threshold. At some point, they stopped experienc-
ing new stuff, as they settled for comfort after re-
tirement. Do you want to be scared to leave your
own house in the last chapters of your life? No, be-
cause no one does.

The benefits of leaving the comfort

zone
Leaving the comfort zone has numerous bene-
fits, but the most significant ones are related to
personal development. Growing as a human being
and discovering more and more of the world we
live has to be the most rewarding experience.
At GoalsInfinite.com we focus our efforts to moti-
vate and help you to grow and improve yourself
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every day. It is our mission. Now, let's talk about
how leaving your comfort zone will help your per-
sonal growth.
As you step outside of the comfort zone for the
first time and deal with the resistance that it can
come with, you come to the realization, that it is
not so bad. When you cross the edge the second
time it will be even easier. Because every time you
get out of your comfort zone you are expanding its
boundaries and it will grow. You'll be comfortable
doing more things and you'll feel less anxiety,
stress and discomfort when facing something new
or uncertain. If right now, you have problems deal-
ing with new situations and you just freeze and
don't even know where to start this is the way to
train yourself. Stepping outside of your comfort
zone will help you to adapt to new situations fast-
er.
I honestly believe that one of the most im-
portant things we have to do with our lives is
breaking the chains of mediocrity and doing ex-
traordinary things. Most of the time we'll have to
develop skills and learn to do this. You probably
have a list of feats, skills and knowledge, that you
always wanted to have. Well, now is the time start
working towards them. Personal development is a

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key component in our lives and if you think that
some skills cannot be developed or talent is more
valuable than effort you are wrong.
Carol Dweck in her book “Mindset” presents
numerous studies that show the exact opposite. It
shows that every skill can be developed no matter
what, but it is always about the way you think
about yourself and the way you think about your
ability to learn.
Leaving the comfort zone will increase produc-
tivity when you are experiencing the healthy
amount of anxiety. We already talked about this,
but this is important. If you want to be a high
achiever you'll have to start making trips over the
edge.
For last, but not least it will help you deal with
the dullness of life and the daily grind. Entering
the rat race and just doing our jobs every day can
become dull very fast. We slip into a routine that
only covers our basic needs, but nothing more.
Once you leave and start experiencing new things
you enjoy, you'll never want to stop. There is prob-
ably a bucket list in your heard which contains a
list of fun activities, that you want to experience
once in your life. Probably none of those will ever
happen if you just sit in the middle of comfort.

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You'll have to make them happen. You have to
spend your time well right now, starting today.
Experience what you haven't experienced, do what
you haven't done before, you have to learn what
you don't know yet. Take the first step to becoming
the person you always wanted to be. Just because
you are afraid to face your limitations that doesn't
mean you'll have to spend your life in comfort.
Face these limitations on your own terms, and
don't let life just push you wherever it wants to.

How to break out of the comfort

zone?
As I mentioned earlier, breaking out of your
comfort zone for the first time is probably going to
be the hardest one. If you are reading this book
there's a good chance you already tried and I'm
guessing it did not go well. The good news is that
with every trip, it'll get easier as shown here on
this graph. The recipe you'll find here will help you
succeed in crossing the edge, and it only has two
components: motivation and an activity.

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If the facts and reasons presented earlier in
this book are not motivating enough, your desires
can be used as sources of motivation. We all wish
to have certain traits and characteristics or even a
different lifestyle. What would be the most reward-
ing thing about those changes? How would your
life be any better? Will you become a high achiev-
er? Think about the reward and the benefits of
those changes. I'd like you to think about these
questions for 10-15 minutes, maybe even take
notes or do a visualization exercise. I wrote an ar-
ticle on this topic called Planning your future
starts with you. Craving those changes will bring
you the motivation you need to do the first steps.
Now, let's talk about the first activity you'll do
outside of your comfort zone. It will bring a small-
er or larger amount of discomfort, but that is noth-
ing compared to the benefits in the long term. The
only problem here is that we have limitless op-

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tions, but here are a few pointers to help you
choose:

 There's probably an experience that you always

wished to have. Something on your bucket list
or a life goal. The one thing you always wanted,
but for some reason you just never did it. Now
is the time to bring that idea into reality.
 As motivation is not a static thing I urge you to
take action as soon as you can. Pick something
you can do within 2 days. Today is the best,
tomorrow is okay, and the day after tomorrow
is late.
 Analysis paralysis can be a hurdle for many. To
avoid getting stuck in the planning phase pick
something that requires only a small amount of
planning.
 When you finally decided what you will do,
don't give it an extra thought. Get to the doing
as fast as you can. I wrote a motivational article
on this topic called Doing is the single most
important step you'll ever do.
 If you worry too much about what will happen
outside of the comfort zone, just remember
this: No matter what happens, you'll be fine!
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If you still have no idea what activity to pick,
here's a list of best ones available:

 Travel somewhere you haven't been before.

This is one of the biggest steps you can take. It
will not only get you out of the house for a
longer period, but you will be forced to meet
new people, visit new places and try out new
things. It works on different levels. There are a
lot of travel addicts out there who tried it,
loved it and now can't stop it.
 Talk to someone you always wanted to have a
conversation with. It doesn't matter if you talk
to your idol, to a stranger on the street or to the
prettiest girl at the office, as long as it is out of
your comfort zone. Human interaction can be a
big step for many of us when social media is
the accepted standard for keeping in touch
with each other.
 Learn something. Learning a new language, to
play an instrument or a new skill can be a fas-
cinating experience. For example, I really enjoy
writing computer codes. I find it fascinating to
create something useful or fun out of nothing
with only the knowledge in my head and a
computer. When finally the few lines of code
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start doing what you want them to do is one of
the best feelings ever for me.
 Eat something you always wanted. This is the
easiest task on this list. You can do this right
now! Go down the street and order a dish in
that restaurant you always wanted to try. Even
better, adopt a new style of cooking. Creating
delicious food with new techniques and spices
you never tried before is one of the most re-
warding feelings ever.
 Volunteer for something. Nowadays there are
endless opportunities to volunteers. No matter
what do you believe in or have strong feelings
about, there's a group you can join and help.
You'll do things you never did before and you'll
meet people who have similar interests.
 Do a 30-day challenge. The internet is full of
these right now. When it is physical exercise,
coding or even napping there's a challenge for
it, believe me. You can also come up with your
own one. Pick something you always wanted to
try and do it for 30 days. At the end of it, you'll
know is it really the thing you always wanted to
do? Maybe it is, maybe it's not, but at the end
of the journey, you'll know. This is one of the
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best options the get out of your comfort zone
when it comes to consistency.

Building the habit of experiencing

the new
We all have habits. Most of the time they form
naturally, but you can construct one for yourself as
well. In Charles Duhigg's book “The power of hab-
it”, he uses a simple model to explain the for-
mation of habits, no matter if they are good or bad
ones. This model uses four components: a cue that
triggers the process, the routine action we do, the
craving feeling of a reward and the reward itself.
The picture below explains the connection between
them.

Duhigg explains that the craving feeling is the

key to building a habit successfully. The desire of
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the rewards is what drives both our bad and good
routines as well. The get the full picture I recom-
mend reading Duhigg's book as it is both educa-
tional and entertaining.
As mentioned above, to increase your bounda-
ries and supercharge your personal development
you'll have to take frequent trips outside of your
comfort zone. The best way to do this is to make a
habit of it. Discovering more and more of the
world we live in is highly rewarding and the expe-
rience that it will come with will hook you for life.
You will have the craving feeling that you need to
form this habit and you'll only have to do is to feed
this flame.

I wish you the best of luck with this!

Gabor

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