I’m going to give four tools that you can finally break free of that comfort zone that’s holding you back and start getting those things that you truly want in life.
Now these four tools. First up is visualize. We all have unbelievable potential to achieve whatever it is we want to achieve, whether that’s business and career, whether that’s health, your fitness, a certain size or weight that you want to be, your finances. Whatever it is, we have an ideal version of what we want to be. So if a genie was there and a genie gave you wishes to say, “Right, what is your ideal you? What do you want? I can give that to you right now, snap of a finger.” You would be able to articulate what it is that you actually want. But yet, so many of us don’t go after those things. We’re stuck in this comfort zone and we’re stuck in this programmed state that we’ve given ourselves. Our habits, our thoughts, our actions are in this state of the comfort zone.
So even though someone might really, really want to, say, lose a certain amount of weight, but yet they don’t actually do it, they’d rather sit there and watch Netflix and eat a packet of Doritos and sip on a Coke. So why do people get caught in that state? Well, you need to have tools a lot of the time. You think about it, that can be programmed your whole life that you’ve been that way, and your brain, your mind is just running that program. So when you try and do something that’s outside of that comfort zone, it’s going to give all sorts of reasons and excuses and throw whatever it can throw at you to prevent you from actually going to that new outcome.
So the first tool that you can use is visualization. Now, what visualization, something I’ve incorporated, which I find has been really, really helpful, so stick with me on this. The first thing I’d do and recommend to do is write out what it is that you’re trying to achieve. What are the results? What is that ideal situation? Now, whether that is just one thing, so it could just be a health goal or it could be a business goal, it could be the ideal version of you, whatever it is. Write out what you want that to be, specifically. Get in detail. Once you’ve written it out, you can then start to visualize the actual ideal version or that result that you want to go after. So for me, I incorporate it in my morning routine. So as soon as I get up in the morning, I do a quick meditation and then I visualize. And I’ll visualize the outcome that I want, whether that’s a micro outcome, as in I want to achieve something that day, that week, for example, or it’s at a larger scale level.
And then at night I also visualize before I go to bed. And this is one that I’ve incorporated as well. I recommend it, even if it’s five minutes before you go to bed. Visualize that outcome. And that way, if you’re doing this consistently every day, it’s going to start going into your thoughts while you’re sleeping and you’ll wake up primed and ready to go. Now what this is doing, it’s creating new neural pathways in your brain, which is getting the mind familiar with what you actually want to do, that outcome that you want. So I highly recommend it. It’s worked wonders for me. And really, really to push past that comfort zone, this is the first thing that I recommend.
Now, number two is to prepare yourself. So what do I mean by preparing yourself? Well, I mentioned a little bit earlier that your mind will now throw up all kinds of BS and arguments for you not to do the actual action, to keep you in that comfort zone. It’s going to tell you all sorts of things. So what we actually want to do is prepare, really to go to battle. So a couple of things that you can do here.
So I would write out all the bullshit excuses that your mind is going to throw up. And you would know these things. So imagine this, as an example. You look at yourself in the mirror, you’re not happy with how you look. Now you really do want to make some changes. Ideally, you know that you don’t want to be overweight, or might be that you want more muscle, or whatever it is. So you know that that’s what you want. And you are sick and tired of looking at yourself in the mirror every day and not being happy. So you have this plan. Right, that’s it. Tomorrow when I get up, I’m going to go for a walk, or I’m going to go to the gym, I’m going to join a gym. I’m going to do all these amazing things about losing weight. I’m going to stick to this diet. I’m going to start eating really healthy food, no more hamburgers, no more take out, whatever it is. You start thinking, yeah, I’m going to do it, yeah.
So you plan on going for a walk. You wake up in the morning and you kind of lie in bed and then your brain starts telling you, “Oh, it’s a bit cold outside, or we’ll start tomorrow. We won’t do it today. I’m just really tired. I’m not really ready for it. I didn’t really get myself prepared properly for it. I don’t really have the right shoes. I really need to get some new shoes so I can go walking. I don’t really have any gym clothes. I really feel like I…” Whatever these, the mind starts telling you all these things. It can even start telling you things like, “What’s the point? You’re always going to be overweight.” Or it might justify it by saying, “Well, how many people actually go to the gym? There are other people that aren’t in good shape, so why should I?” It’ll just start telling you whatever it can tell you to stop you from going to the gym.
So what we need to do is we need to prepare. So you write out all those bullshit excuses, and then as a counter to that, once you’ve got all the BS excuses, you write the reasons why you need to go to the gym, what is it going to cost you if you don’t go to the gym. Think about your health, for one. So what else would be a cost for not going to the gym? Or how about the longevity of life? How about how you feel every morning? Like for me, like if I’m not eating right and I am not going to the gym, then I get anxiety. I feel crap when I wake up in the morning. I don’t have the motivation to do things and I get frustrated with myself because I haven’t actually achieved those things. So I know that these are big things. But if you’re not making them at the forefront of your mind and you haven’t got those as the reasons to combat the excuses, you’re not going to win the battle.
So you need to write out the justification of why you want to take these new actions. So longevity of life, your happiness, your feeling, you know that feeling of anxiety. I hate it. So I know that pain and I don’t want to feel that pain. So that helps me. I draw on that. But if you’re like me, I’ve got kids as well. Like I leverage kids, family. Me not doing these things means I’m not going to be around, potentially, as long. Like we all know the health risks of not exercising, not eating right. Like that could cut 20 years of your life, 10 years of your life, for example. And that’s time that you don’t get to spend with your kids.
But not even that. Think about it one step further. You’re not influencing your kids or your loved ones in the right way. So your choices and your decisions that you’re making are actually influencing poor habits or good habits upon your kids. In turn, could mean that you’re potentially killing them earlier than they should do. Their longevity is going to be decreased because you’re not leading by example. You’re not installing those right habits and thoughts into them. So I would recommend using those as leverage as well. Write those out, know them, understand them so that way the awareness level is there. So when your thoughts come in, bang, you can hit them with the justifications. You know the reasons. So you use this on top of your visualization.
So number three is to chunk down your goals. So if you’re actually trying to achieve something, rather than actually setting a goal that’s set really high, you need to try and find the threshold that you know that you’ll take those action steps. And if you actually chunk it down to a step, then you don’t take it, then chunk it down further. So what do I mean by chunking? So let’s just say you’ve always wanted to start a new business. You hate your job. You’re in this nine to five grind, like I said, a lot of my clients are in this situation, and you want to get out of that, but you don’t. You dream of having this business. You want to make seven figures a year. You want to do that million-dollar business. You have these financial goals attached to it. You want to have that freedom. You want to have a lifestyle on your terms, all these things. But you don’t do it. You don’t actually do it. And then the reason is that it’s such a big goal. It can be so overwhelming.
So what you can actually do is chunk it down. So write down everything that you think you would need to do to actually achieve that. So kind of reverse engineer the outcome.
So what would be an example of chunking it down? So it could be, say, the researching part. It could just be as simple as register an ABN. It could be seeking out courses that you need to study. Whatever it is, you write down all these things. So obviously to have a business, you’re going to have marketing, social media strategy, if you need anyone on board for it, building a website. As I said, things like legal staff, and getting your ABN, accounting stuff sorted out. Like there’s a lot of things. So write out everything that you need to do. Could be a business plan, whatever it is. Write out everything and then go even more micro and chunk it right down to, say, steps that would take 10 minutes to do.
And once you’ve chunked it down to those, say, smaller steps, then you pick three of the things that you can do for that week. Once you’ve achieved it, boom, you go onto the next thing. And that would be called chunking down. So do that, and that’s definitely going to help you achieve those goals. Now, a quick explanation of why that is because you’re not stepping too far out of your comfort zone. You’re doing things that are actually achievable.
You’re kind of tricking your brain, because if you do something too far away, you’re going to be in more of a battle to beat your programmed state. So if you do things that are just outside of that, then you’re going to be able to tick, tick, tick, do them, and then you can move on to the next three action steps. Tick, tick, tick. Do them and move onto the next ones, and so on. So that chunking down process is really, really good.
So number four, hire a good coach or a mentor. So the reason why I would recommend this is because obviously I am a results coach, but my efforts, my success skyrocketed as soon as I started getting coaches and mentors into my life. And those that are obviously clients of mine or know about results coaching or even just getting mentors, they help you actually get clarity on what you want and then remove any of those roadblocks. So having someone that can actually see what those roadblocks are, having techniques and tools to actually do it. So whether that’s limiting beliefs is something that is holding you back because you don’t believe that you can do it. It could be fear, it could be habitual things. So the habits that you actually have and not being able to break out of that comfort zone.
A good coach can actually identify those things, clear those out, and then create goals that are suitable and tailored to you, and then be able to hold you accountable to those things. So you’ll find that you’ll get results very, very fast. So I highly recommend getting a coach on board in your life to some extent, or a mentor, reaching out to people. And that I can’t speak highly enough. You’ll see a lot of highly successful people talk about getting those people in your life if you truly want to see results and have success.
So get out of your comfort zone. Comfort zone is your enemy. If you want any kind of result, if you want that body, that health and that fitness, you want to be around longer for your kids, you want that business success, you want to earn seven figures, become a millionaire, whatever it is, you have to get out of your comfort zone. You cannot achieve these things by doing the same thing that you’re doing. Watching Netflix, eating those Doritos and sipping on that Coke, not taking the extra steps to build your knowledge base, so you can actually go and achieve those things. That all require you stepping out of your comfort zone.
So I hope these tools are going to help truly look to implement these things. They do work. There’s no different from someone who is highly successful and you, in terms of your potential being able to get those things. The only difference is there are tools and strategies they use. They get out of their comfort zone. They do what’s uncomfortable. So I challenge you to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Look for growth, grow yourself, and get those things. Take action towards those things, and you will start seeing results.