You Were Born to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Ellevate Network
2 min readJan 12, 2021

By: Jamie Martin

When you were born, you were immediately thrust into an unknown world.

Everything around you was new and scary. You knew the sound of your mom and dad’s voice, but nothing else. It was all brand new to you.

Despite your fears, you still grew. You learned to smile and laugh. You learned to eat. You learned to speak. You learned to crawl.

Each thing you learned, you had to challenge yourself. You had to step out of the comfort of your mom’s arms to take that first step. You cried a lot. You struggled a lot. You learned you couldn’t do it the first time you tried, but you kept trying. You learned that you have to hold your head up before you can sit up. It took a lot of tries. A lot of time being uncomfortable, but you did it. You learned.

You were born to be out of your comfort zone.

[Related: Awareness as a Vital Lesson in Leadership]

What keeps you there today?

What holds you back from challenging yourself?

Fear.

The fear of failure.

The fear of success.

The fear of crying from the struggle.

The fear of being wrong.

What has that fear stopped you from doing? Stopped you from going after your dream job? Stopped you from becoming a speaker? Stopped you from speaking up in a meeting? Stopped you from telling your boss your idea?

[Related: Three Public Speaking Fight Moves for Millennial Women in Male-Dominated Industries]

You can allow this fear to hinder you. You’ll continue to live your life exactly the way you have. Inside a nice little comfortable bubble. One that isn’t all that comfortable because you aren’t happy, you aren’t satisfied, and you aren’t doing any of the things you dream of doing.

Or you can take what you were already born with and put it into action right now. Take everything you learned as a baby: that a little crying is okay, that the struggle is okay, that failure is okay. Because at some point you’ll learn to take that first step and then the second one and then the third one. You’ll smile and maybe laugh from the accomplishment. You’ll be proud of yourself.

You have everything you need to jump into the unknown. You were born stepping outside of your comfort zone.

What will you create?

What will you try?

[Related: Intentional Habits to Glide Into the New Year With Ease]

Jamie Martin is a life and leadership coach who helps women who have been going and going and going for so long that they feel like they’ve lost themselves. She helps her clients give themselves permission to put themselves first, create a plan, and go after their dreams.

Originally published at https://www.ellevatenetwork.com.

--

--

Ellevate Network

A community of professional women committed to helping each other succeed.