Let's step out of our Comfort Zone

Do you remember the game hop-scotch?

There was always that someone who found a piece of chalk and at break times during school or once the bell rang to let everyone head home, there was always a footpath with a group of children hopping and skipping along a chalk-marked path. Lots of fun and plenty of laughter along the way. (Google hop-scotch for more details and why not give it a try!)

Comfort zones are a bit like this children's game. We can easily draw an imaginary circle around where we are standing or sitting and know that everything inside the circle is 'our space.' We don't like it when people get too close or when we are asked or made step out of our personal space.

But comfort zones are more than that. They are often boundaries we have created in our heads of what things we like to do and want to do, and then there is a line drawn that suggests a boundary over which if we step, we will feel vulnerable, lost, overwhelmed, scared and many other unwanted emotions.

Yet the experts often tell us that freedom lies on the other side of fear. In other words, when we step outside of our comfort zone, in order to ask that person out, apply for that promotion, or reveal the real us to the world, then we will reap the rewards for temporary discomfort versus the confidence it will bring by trying something new. By stepping out of our comfort zone in other words.

So the question is, what are your comfort zones in the main areas of your life? What experience or who from the past has helped you form your comfort zones? When you draw the line in your mind that determines where comfort is and where fear starts beyond it, do you want your life to be limited by other people's beliefs or past negative experiences?

How would life be if you regularly stepped outside of your comfort zone and explored the unknown? After all, you are the one with the chalk in your hand. You get to decide where to draw the line.......