Break Out of Your Comfort Zone

In the Tree House: Break Out of your Comfort Zone

By: Samantha S. Daviss

Sometimes “comfortable” can be a good thing. We are comfortable in our homes, we are comfortable with a particular group of friends, we are comfortable with our favorite flavor of coffee. But sometimes “comfortable” can be detrimental to us. Sometimes too comfortable can make us complacent in our lives, our relationships, and how we treat others.

So do one thing this week or even this month to really make yourself step outside your comfort zone; go beyond your daily ritual. Change something, stop doing a bad habit, or start doing a good habit.

For example, in creating a good habit, if you are one of those people that go through life on a daily basis and rarely call and check on your friends, just because…do it! People always like to know they are being thought of, and cared about, even if from a distance. It only takes a minute to pick up the phone and say “Hi, how are you?” Or better yet, change your weekly routine up enough to ask a friend to meet you for a cup of coffee. That couldn’t take more than an hour, right? What’s it going to mess up? Another run to Wal-Mart or Target? Or, put you behind an hour on a load of laundry? Big deal, it will all be there for you in an hour, or I bet you could even manage to catch up the next day. So what if the laundry isn’t done…your family isn’t going to ban you from the house.

We all need to stay in touch with those that mean the most to us in our lives, and take a little time out of life for you in the process. Because if we don’t, what in the world are we doing? Certainly not enjoying the one life we have been given.

Stop a bad habit. I just did and I feel more liberated than I have in years. I closed my FaceBook account and it felt great. It was becoming such a bad habit that I would wake up in the morning and roll over to check it. I never posted anything, and honestly I never really cared what anyone else was doing. It became more of a time-filler for me. Actually, more of a “time waster”. It’s not that I don’t care what others are doing, but it is their life, they need to live it, and I need to not be concerned. Because truthfully, I am living my life the way I want, and I barely have time to keep up with my activities, responsibilities, and family’s goings on…so why in the world would I have time to keep up with over 500 other peoples lives? I mean really think about it…do you really have time for all that…nope! I have three kids, two jobs, a house to keep, four pets, and a husband…just writing it out makes me exhausted…I barely have time for myself, let alone to worry about what someone is doing in my hometown, down the street, or across the globe. So I broke a bad habit, and it feels great. Think of all the time we waste on social media, and now think about how we can focus that time on ourselves, our families, or the dirty dishes in the sink.

I’m not saying my way is the right way, I am just saying step out of your “comfort zone” for a while. They say it takes seven days to create a habit, and 30 days to break a habit. Give it a shot…stop doing something for 30 days, a bad habit, and you know what they are…and see if you are missing it at the end of 30 days.

If you really want to step out of your comfort zone for a while…do something crazy, do something completely spontaneous. Book a trip and go! Get a hotel room for a night, just because and have a family fun camp out. Try something you’ve never tried, like water skiing. If you’ve never strapped a pair of skis on your feet and glided across the water, do it. It is one of the most liberating and exhilarating experiences. Are you going to fall? Of course you are…but what’s living without a few stumbles along the way. Don’t worry about what people think…do something that will make you go “Weeeee!”

Life’s way too short to live in monotony! Start crossing things off your bucket list today, and start living in the now. Not in the future, definitely not in the past…and rearrange your life so those bad habits stop controlling the here and now!