I read a ton of books.  I LOVE to read!!  Most of the books I read are on the topics of mindset, money, business and success.  A common theme that runs through most, if not all of these books is that if you want success in life and business, you have to get used to being uncomfortable.

The only way we grow and expand out of our comfort zone is to continually challenge ourselves, try new things, no matter how scary they may seem, and practice being uncomfortable.

I did an experiment with the women in my facebook group last week because I noticed in my own life I wasn’t putting myself out there as much as I’d like, or doing things that would make me uncomfortable.  The result of being comfortable is that I’m not making much progress in the areas that I want to improve.

I told my group I was going to start with baby steps and do a 5 day challenge for myself to see how I can be uncomfortable.  I was happy that some of them joined me!  I’ll break down each day for you as inspiration so you can see where in your life things seem to be running on autopilot and how you can start to expand that comfort zone.

Day 1 – Daily Habits

There are so many things we do on a daily basis without even thinking about it because they’ve become habits ingrained into our system.  When I actually stopped to think of the many things we do I had to laugh.   Sleeping on a certain side of the bed,  my seat at the dinner table, the way I put the toilet paper on the roll – just to name a few. For day 1 I switched all of that up.  I slept on the other side of the bed, turned my toilet paper around so the paper went over the roll and sat at a different seat during dinner.

I tried to go to bed before my husband but couldn’t fall sleep fast enough.  Sure enough the first thing he said when he came in was “what are you doing on MY side?  Move over!”  I laughed and didn’t move.  I also didn’t really sleep much that night.

Day 2 – Our Outward Appearance

We all seem to have a style that we like and wear most of the time.  For me it’s jeans, black shoes or boots, neutral or muted color shirts, understated jewelry, same hair style, not many prints and no loud colors.  I realize this may be a visibility issue – not wanting to be noticed.   But I also realize the more successful I want to be with my business, the more visible I also need to be.  So on this day I decided to raid my daughter’s nail polish stash and wear electric blue on my fingers and a kelly green on my toes.  I had to be out in public all day because I was running my photography camp.  I rarely wear nail polish because I have zero patience for the upkeep but on the seldom times I do, it definitely wouldn’t be either of these colors.  Unless of course it’s Halloween.  That’s when all hell breaks loose and I go crazy!  Love it!!  By the middle of the day I completely forgot I was even wearing the nail polish and I even got a compliment on it. 🙂

Day 3 – Exercise – stuck in a rut

As far as exercise goes, my version of stuck in a rut is plain old NOT exercising.  I think about it a lot!  Does that count?!?  On days that I do exercise it consists of taking walks around the neighborhood.  We recently bought an exercise board that I saw as one of the products on Shark Tank so that was a bit of  a stretch but I knew I was still being pretty lame about it.  So, I decided to join an extreme fitness group on Facebook called We Do Hard Stuff.  I figured it would inspire me to get my butt in gear.  These people are serious about their exercise!  They have challenges each month and donations are sent to different charities each month so it’s a great cause.  I kept seeing posts where people were talking about how many burpees they did that month.  What the hell is a burpee?!?  My first uncomfortable moment was introducing myself to the group and second was showing my ignorance by asking what a burpee was.  I know now!!  I have since attempted to do a burpee – 4 of them to be exact.  So friggin’ hard!!  If you were in the dark like I was, check out this video on how to do a burpee.

Day 4 – What’s For Dinner?

Each week we buy the same food,  make the same recipes, eat at the same restaurants and order the same dishes.  Creatures of habit!!!  Whenever the girls and I go out to lunch with my mom, she always says girls’ choice on where we go.  It usually comes down to 2 places – Panera or California Pizza Kitchen.  Last week when we were meeting my mom I threw out this crazy idea to the girls – why don’t we try a NEW place?!?  You would have thought I suggested we go to the moon by the expression on their faces followed by a shrill of Noooooooo!!!  We ended up at CPK.  I ordered something I hadn’t ordered before.  They didn’t.  I also tried a vegan cookie for the first time.  My younger daughter has been vegan for a month now which is a whole topic I’ll save for another post.  The cookie was supposed to be chocolate chip.  It tasted like Apple Jacks cereal with chocolate chips.  Not a fan!

Day 5 – The information We Take In

I love going to book stores!  When I pay a visit to Barnes & Noble, upon entering the store I make a beeline to the magazine section, specifically the Crafts & Hobbies section, followed by the Food section and then if I’m feeling really adventurous the Home section.  Like clockwork.  On this day I decided to venture out to the other sections.  Woo Hoo – look at me go!!  I ended up at the Healthy Lifestyles section where I found a magazine I’m so excited about called In The Moment – mindful ways to live your life well.  LOVE this magazine!

A few takeaways from this little experiment:

• I survived!  Granted they were all baby steps but last week while I was doing this challenge, it was helping to build up the “being uncomfortable” muscle and I took action in areas of my business that I had previously been putting off.
• I found a new magazine that sparked so many new creative  ideas for me.  If you want creative ideas for your business, start to look outside of your industry.
• It was fun doing this challenge with other like minded women.  One woman gave up her routine of her morning coffee, another went skipping though a park risking looking like a 5 year old, and another posted a video of herself without any makeup on.  We all took leaps and stretched… and survived!

My challenge to you if you’re not satisfied with the status quo of your life and biz, is to really take a look and think about which areas are currently running on autopilot and how you can switch things up a bit.  Build up that muscle so you can start to grow leaps and bounds in your life and biz!

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