Being comfortable is something you often see as positive and desirable. You are happy when you feel at ease with your friends, in your job and in your abilities. But when does being comfortable lead to being too complacent and not taking on new risks or challenges? When does it hold you back from achieving your true potential?
This week, get out of your comfort zone by giving yourself a fun, simple personal challenge: try something new. This can be anything from taking a yoga class at the gym instead of your regular treadmill routine to asking a colleague you admire to give you advice on a problem you have with a work project.
Take out your personal journal and brainstorm what you will take on this week!
Journaling Exercise: Get Uncomfortable
1. First, remind yourself that discomfort is not always a bad thing. You have to feel stretched, challenged and sometimes even frustrated to learn and grow. In your journal, spend five minutes writing about times in the past when you pushed your limits and reaped the benefits. Describe the time you thought you had no artistic ability but pushed yourself to design invitations for your office’s holiday party, or the time you were nervous to travel outside the country for the first time but managed to make yourself understood in another language.
How did you feel once you achieved these small victories? What did you learn about yourself in the process?
2. Now think about all the different small challenges you could give yourself to grow in your personal or professional life. What could you do tomorrow? What could you do in just one hour? What have you been thinking about but haven’t been ready to take the plunge? Brainstorm a list of ideas in your personal journal; they should make you feel a little bit nervous but also excited! These challenges are meant to be fun ways to grow. For example:
• Sign up for my local Toastmasters group
• Write a love poem
• Go to the specialty food store and ask questions about food and wine pairing
• Do a DIY project I added on Pinterest
• Perform at an open mic night
3. Choose one idea and vow to complete it within the next week. Tell your journal why you are looking forward to it and how you hope to feel once you’ve accomplished it.
Need some more journal writing ideas? Check out Create Write Now's 198 and counting Journal Writing Ideas.
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