Stepping out of your comfort zone

So I have a sentence for you…

Your new life costs you your old life, and not everyone is willing to pay that price.

Let that sentence land…

Because this is perhaps the biggest reason why people find change difficult to embrace. Mentally, you may want to change your habits, your environment or your work. But thinking about change is not the same as doing the work to create the change in your life. Yes, thinking about change and making it happen are very different things. You might say sentences like “i wish i could …or I really want to…and then resorting back to the daily life you know and not changing anything or making any different decisions…we all have been there.

One of the mental barriers is the comfortable life you have to give up to step into the unknown adventure. We don’t know the price of saying goodbye to your old life, and we have no guarantees that your new life will bring you what you desire. No one knows the future. And no one can tell you what the price of your new life will be. What things you have to give up from your comfort zone? Which people you have to let go? What benefits will disappear?

For example, take the step of moving to a new job or switching to a new client if you have been working for the same employer or for the same client for a very long time. You feel frustrated in your current job, but you also know what you have. And the fear of the unknown may be greater than the desire to give up your certainties what you do have now in your comfort zone.

For example.

Maybe your travel time or the benefits are better in another job, but maybe you already think you don’t want to miss your old colleagues. And should you do take the plunge, you may begin to doubt in after the first week in your new job whether you made the right choice.

After all, jumping into the deep end has a price. You are giving up what you know, in exchange for the unknown. And of course you hope for the best. But the reality is often that it’s not without its challenges. In the long run, you may look back and think it was the right move. But when you’re in the middle of “the storm of change,” it can sometimes feel overwhelming and not as much fun as you had hoped.

Past experiences that are mentally projected onto new situations also cause you to throw yourself less open-mindedly into a new adventure. Like moving to another city, for example. As a student, you looked forward to the adventure of getting to know a new environment. Once you are settled in a city and have built a new circle of friends, you don’t just move for no good reason. Often that reason is love, a new job or family.

Or in my case, a housing crisis that prevented me from buying a house in the city where I had been living for 10 years. As frustrating as your reasons for change may be, really thinking out of the box to turn your life around is going too far for most people. Because yes, you know what you have now. Even if you are unhappy in your way too expensive not so nice rental apartment. So I totally understand the doubt…

So most people stay in their comfort zone and are afraid to change. They would rather be unhappy, frustrated and uncomfortable in their current situation than be motivated enough and have the guts to make different choices in their lives. Not many people dare to leave their comfort zone to move to another city. Or break up a relationship that is actually not a healthy and loving one.

Most people are driven by fear and would rather feel bitter than actually take the wheel and create change in their world. And may complain a lot about their life and situation or blame others for how their life has turned out. And there is good reason for fear. Most people are driven by fear, and that’s not surprising. Fear is actually very useful for survival.

Which brings me to another factor that is built into our system to prevent the changes our heart desires: our survival mechanism. Our mind’s job is to keep us safe. At least, that’s what it thinks it has to do. Every time you try to adopt a new habit or adjust your life course, your inner critic stands by you. Your mind will try to convince you to stay in your comfort zone with inner dialogues such as “Are you sure?” “Don’t you like knowing what you already have?” “Why give up everything you’ve worked so hard for?” “Who are you to think you can really get this done?”.

Our inner critic will be the first to tell you that stepping into the unknown is a very bad idea. We all learn in childhood that it is safer to belong to the group. That it’s better not to stick your head out. It’s better to align your behavior with what the herd is doing than to be the odd duck out.

This conditioning keeps you from acting boldly and pursuing your dreams. Your new life costs you your old life and not everyone is willing to pay that price..

My motto is still “It’s better to regret what you did than what you didn’t do. Because you also know that stepping outside your comfort zone brings you growth. A new adventure can bring you a lot, but what exactly no one knows.

Because nobody has a crystal ball, including your inner critic….

So make your expectations come true! Whether your dreams come true, you will only find out if you get moving. If you dare to jump. If you are willing to pay the price for change. You always sacrifice something and often you get something better in return. Even though you may get something you couldn’t have imagined in your wildest dreams!

If you want to use a tool in this change process, there is an element in the Human Design system that can help you remove the doubts about change. And that is following your strategy & inner authority.Stay tuned for more episode about inner authority later in this podcast series.

Your Human Design chart shows your strategy and inner authority at the top of the page. If you don’t have your Human Design chart yet, you can download it for free if you go to my website www.palmtreemoments.com en navigate to free resources. All you need are your date, place and time of birth. If you don’t know exactly what time you were born, enter 12:00. You can always have a new chart calculated later.

Be careful what you wish for…. It just might happen!

Thank you so much for sharing a piece of you’re day with me while listening to the Palmtree Talks Podcast. Did you find it interesting and want to learn more about stress reduction, mindset and Human Design? Be sure to check out the free resources at palmtreemoments.com.

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Have a happy morning, evening or afternoon, where ever you are listening from and until next time