Lets step out of our comfort zone

I sense a Kung Fu Panda theme this week! But bare with me..

We took the boys to see the 3rd one this weekend and even though it is a children’s movie I can’t but help being inspired by it. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry I won’t spoil it for you 😉 I will just mention this: At one point ‘Master Shifu’ said to ‘Po’:
“If you only do what you can do you will never be more than what you are”

What a great line!

I think most of us have heard the supposed quote by Albert Einstein that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” or lots of other similar “If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done” kind of quotes. But what I liked about what ‘Master Shift’ said is that its about who you are as a person, to evolve in to something more. What a lot of people don’t realise is that by stepping out of our comfort zone, we can not only do more we can be more! It is only out of that comfort zone we can evolve as a person. Step out of it to not only do more or better, but to be more or better.

Sometimes we are thrown out of our comfort zone by other forces and sometimes we step out of it consciously. A simple example of this can be exercising. Yes, it is out of our comfort zone where our body grows and change, we have to constantly try to get out of that zone, run faster or longer, or lift heavier weights, to get our body to change or as I quoted Einstein earlier; you can’t do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. You have to push that limit.
And I love to push that limit. I love to lift a little heavier than I did last week, or squeeze out that extra rep. But not simply because I want my body to change, but because what it does for me mentally. When I can do things physically that I couldn’t do before, Imagine what I can do mentally! I am stronger and more capable than I thought!

Moving is another example. Yes, moving to England from Sweden was scary, and definitely out of my comfort zone. It would have been so much easier to stay put and plod along with our every day life in Sweden. But we decided we needed to move if we wanted what lies beyond that initial discomfort. And boy, did I grow from that experience.

Although, sometimes we are thrown out of our comfort zone by things beyond our control. Like when our boys were diagnosed with autism. That was hard as hell, and I sure did not want to step in to that zone initially. But I had to, and once I did and embraced it, it made me grow.
Another saying is, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
Well, kind of. It only makes you stronger if you let it. If you choose to take the hard lessons in life as an opportunity to grow and learn from it. Otherwise we stay in our comfort zone.

This is a shift in mindset of course. I used to be far to comfortable with being in my comfort zone. I felt safe when I stayed put. This probably had to do with my terrible self esteem and lack of self worth. Growing up I didn’t believe I could achieve anything. I could probably talk the talk but not walk the walk. Terrible self esteem. And I was never pushed or encouraged to believe I could achieve anything. It was deep rooted in me that I was nothing special.
But slowly as I grew up and had to be forced out of my comfort zone, slowly a mindset shift happened. To become a better version of myself. It’s been a long road, a lot of work and I am not fully ’there’ yet. I still tend to not embrace change as well as I’d like to, but I’m working on it. Because how else will I grow, evolve, to be more than what I am?
Or as Oprah Winfrey said it: “The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.“

xx