Getting Out of your Comfort Zone

One of the Speakers I enjoyed 2 years ago at the Cameroon Professional Society (CPS) annual convention at Houston was the Celestin Wandji. During his presentation, one of the quotes which caught my attention was "you can never achieve anything worthwhile, if you are not willing to step out of your comfort zone."

I most certainly concur with this. All of us want to achieve success in our lives, but the problem is we also want to remain in our comfort zones and not change. This is not possible as success and comfort zones are definitively not compatible. To achieve success, we have to do things that we have never done before. This is difficult for most people because we are fearful of change and taking risks. As much as change is painful, it is however the price we have to pay to achieve success. As Albert Einstein put it very well, "Insanity is when you do the same things over and over and expect different results"

Regardless of how comfortable you are right now in your comfort zone, you are most certainly not maximizing your potential. Inside the zone you are safe, secure, and stable. Inside this zone, there is minimal risk and when there is no risk, there is definetely no reward. if you are Okay with this, then that is fine too, but please do not complain if you do not achieve success. I am always amazed at people who complain about their lives but do nothing at all to improve it!

Moving out of your comfort zone can however be embarrassing, frightening, painful, and traumatic. But it is probably the single most important step you can make towards achieving things that are worthwhile to your life.

In the process, you must learn to accept the existence of fear. You must realize that fear is something that keeps you from being the person that you could be. It stops you from doing the things you would like to do and hinders you from getting the things you would like to have. you have to learn to manage this fear.

So my advice to everyone (although you haven't asked) would be, fight that fear and go there and do all those things that you would have always wanted to do, start that business, change your job, do that academic program that you have always wanted to do, start that business... In short, take that risk! You may be pleasantly surprised at the results.