Getting out of your comfort zone is the key to growth
I just read a really great interview done with Tom Venuto about the old saying “No Pain, No Gain” and the idea of needing to get out of the comfort zone. I fully agreed with everything I read and I know personally that progress comes from stepping into the unknown.
One example in my own life is learning to snowboard. I always believed I had terrible balance and that kept me from even trying a sport like snow boarding. Finally I gave it a shot and tried something that was new to me and outside of my comfort zone. My balance was terrible. I fell so many times it was hard to count and it hurt. The next time I fell a little less. Then I barely fell at all. Each time I got to this point I’d pick a new aspect of boarding to try and the falling would start all over again. So I’ll never stop falling but I’ll never stop growing and expanding my skills either.
Here’s a few excerpts from the interview I liked:
“You step out of what you’ve already done and into new territory because that’s where growth takes place. I think it’s one of the single most important secrets of personal growth and change: You don’t change by doing what you’ve already done.”
“The change is uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s physically painful, but always mentally and emotionally, in the form of discipline, uncertainty and fear. I don’t care what anybody says about “no pain, no gain.” That phrase gets knocked all the time as if it were wrong. Well, I’m going to tell you, the fact of life is that you don’t grow unless you step outside the comfort zone, and outside the comfort zone is discomfort.”
One of my new favourite quotes:
“Do what you always did, get what you always got.”
Go read the full article here.
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