Many years ago, when I was attending one of my favourite counselling classes, my mentor said, “In life, you can have comfort or growth, you can’t have both.” It is these words that have motivated me to keep moving ahead in life and to inspire others to do the same.
Stepping out of one’s comfort zone requires considerable effort. After all, venturing from a familiar territory to an unknown can appear to be a daunting task, at first. However, once you learn to look at anything new as a challenge, an opportunity to innovate or maximize your potential, you will also learn to embrace the new phases of your life with ease.
Learning to be more open-minded is the key to evolving continuously. Being open-minded means having optimism towards new ideas while viewing life as a journey and a learning experience. Being open to new ideas also means, learning to be accepting of others’ point of view, even if they are different from your own.
There are several ways to step out of your comfort zone, if you haven’t done it already. You could either choose to begin the new year by enrolling in something that’s new to you; be it a new sport, a cooking class, an adventurous trip or learning to play a musical instrument. These are just a few examples that have been listed. The point is, if you truly want to move ahead in life, you have to keep trying something new.
On the professional front, stepping out of your comfort zone could mean exploring opportunities in different places or learning to operate in known places, including your city and country of origin, from a fresh perspective.
Growing up is never easy. But every time, being flexible seems difficult, I’m reminded of what my good old friend from New York once told me before I moved back to India after completing my higher education and acquiring some work experience, “We cannot and should not live in the same chapter of our lives forever. Because the farther we go, the richer we get.”