Step out of your comfort zone

you shake in fear, or it can propel you around it in order to find out what really is there.
This week I tried my hand at a new skill, I downloaded a freeware photo editing program called Gimp and set about attempting to alter a few pictures.
While I realised pretty quickly that I will not be the photographic equivalent of Picasso, I still managed to have a blast as I explored a new world of brushes, filters and effects.
Fortunately, the web has made getting information on how to use programs like Gimp really easy; you just look up tutorials on YouTube.
I soon found myself navigating through the many different tools on offer to enhance the memories I had stored in my photo album.
The issue was not so much that I could add creative flair to pictures, but that I deliberately did something new.
There are a number of reasons for embarking on a novel experience.
One of which is simply that it helps you grow.
Trying something different to the norm increases your exposure and gives you an extra option to consider when faced with a problem.
This mental experience is reflected in the actual physical changes that take place in your brain.
According to Psychology Today, attempting a new physical task results in changes in neural firing patterns and promotes the formation of new connections between the nerves of your brain.
The fancy term for the part of the nerve involved in these connections is dendrites.
Engaging in a novel experience causes your nerves to create new dendrites in a relatively short space of time. Increased experience and associations make you a better problem solver.
Everyone likes that incredible feeling of success that comes with achieving a task or goal.
It is a wonderful motivator to trying things again. One of the bonuses of reaching out beyond the norm and doing something different is that on completion there is a sense of achievement.
“Ah”, I hear the detractors say, “you could also fail”. True, that is a real risk, but usually your first steps in trying a new experience are in chunks that are small enough to bring you almost guaranteed success and that picture of success should far outweigh the negative options.
If the fear of failure paralyses you that much, well you are probably never going to get anywhere.
Who knows you may be good at it but if you do not try, then you will never know.
A new experience could turn into a new hobby or in an extreme case, a new career path.
Writing regularly began as a new experience for me and I started a blog. If I had never first put fingers to keyboard you would not be reading this article.
When was the last time you stepped off the well-worn path of your life and tried a different experience?
Most of us walk through the forests of life stuck on a track that we have trodden every day.
A route that, when you look back on it, you never really made a conscious decision to tread out.
You probably use the same brand of coffee as your parents did, drive the same road to work daily, dress in a suit because everyone else does, and brush your teeth twice a day because someone told you to.
That well-worn path is called your comfort zone, and while most of it serves you well (i.e. keeping on brushing your teeth twice a day is a good thing) occasionally it can do with a shake-up.
Moving out of your comfort zone takes courage, the same courage that drives the entrepreneur in you.
Look at it as a challenge to be overcome. While a completely new physical experience is probably the best option, something as simple as trying a different author or eating at a new restaurant can open your mind to other possibilities.
Go skydiving. Swing a golf club. Fly a kite. Travel to a new holiday destination. Take a few karate lessons or dance lessons.
Jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge with a rubber band tied to your legs. Attempt a new computer program.
Challenge your son to a game at the Xbox you got him for his birthday. Step out and do something different.
Have fun engaging in the novel. Make it part of your culture to do something different.
A goal of going on one new course a year to enhance both you and your business is commendable or reading one new book by a different author every quarter.
Develop your experience portfolio. It makes you a much more interesting person to be around.
Your conversations are fuller with an increased wealth of stories. Your repertoire of thought patterns to draw from when problem solving is greater.
Embrace the new and challenging, it makes the future much more exciting.
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