About the Episode
Baggage is a personal struggle that a multitude of people learn to live with, and most learn to never set down. Listen in on today’s episode to learn how Rick has dealt with baggage in his life and how he has learned to grow despite how heavy it is.
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Today we’re going to talk about your comfort zone, how you get out of that, and your journey into the growth zone. Before we dive into this today, I want you to share this with three people who you know that need to hear this. Come on! We don’t take promotion sponsors, nothing else, the only way we can help more people, the only way you can help more people with what you’re hearing today is to share this thank you for being part of this team. All right, we’re gonna dive in here today because you’ve heard a lot of this cliche phrase right about get out of your comfort zone, get out of your comfort zone but nobody frickin tells you how or what that means, or how you even get stuck there, or what the journey is in between there and actually being able to do something.
It’s interesting, because they just seem to stop there. So today, I’m going to try to dry to drive you into this whole mentality today of this journey into growth, alright? So, let’s first talk about what we know. The comfort zone, that dreaded word, right? When you hear this in entrepreneurial space is like, “Oh, you’re in the comfort zone, you gotta get out of your comfort zone. Come on now. That’s why you’re stuck. You gotta get out of your comfort zone, you have to make yourself uncomfortable.” I’ve even said that too. Alright, I understand that but today, let’s take this through that comfort zone. Right? There’s a reason why it exists. What happens when you’re comfortable, there’s really two things, you feel safe. That’s the first thing, because it’s what you’re used to. There’s nothing new around there.
So you feel safe there because it’s a familiarity with your surroundings, with your environment, with the people, with the things with your emotions in that place it’s super comfortable and super safe. Why do you feel safe, because you are in control, or at least you feel that you are, and really that control is almost like a lack of choice to change your current scenario, whatever that is but that’s why you’re in the comfort zone. Because you feel safe, and you feel like you’re in control. It’s actually like a pseudo safety in a pseudo and control because I’ve called this zone before, sort of like the safe place of suffering. Why? Cause I’ve also talked about trying to make things up all the time and how I would go to events, my team knows this and I would come back with all these new ideas and be like, we need to change things all the time, we are constantly evolving, we are constantly iterating because if we stay in the same place too long, we’re gonna die. Right?
Business declines, personal life declines all of that when you stay in the same place and I would hope you can get on the same page as me with that because feeling safe and in control is actually not the best thing because it will keep you where you’re at, for the rest of your life, in business, relationships, job, whatever. That comfort zone is where you feel safe and in control, because it’s pretty much like a place of non choice, non decision, non action or inaction. That’s why it’s comfortable because there’s nothing that rattles your cage. There’s nothing that pushes you to the next level, there’s nothing that gets you to where you really want to go because I mean, if you look down the road, six months, it’s like, “Hey, this is where I want to be. This is what it looks like, if I choose these things, if I take these actions, and this is what it looks like, if I stay in my comfort zone, if I don’t choose these things, if I don’t take action, it’s probably the same place or worse on the ladder that I’m talking about.” That’s why I’m saying that you will gradually decline in life, in business or whatever, when you stay in this place.
When you start to look six months out from now. There’s this segment that you go into, because it’s not just either comfort or growth. Oh, no, we’re gonna debunk that myth here right now. All right, there’s this journey in between that we’re going to talk about, because outside of the comfort zone, is really the fear zone and fear is, of course, an emotion, it’s a thing that you feel, but if you’re scared, that’s kind of actually a good thing because that at least means that you’ve started to think about getting outside that space of decline and I’m not even saying comfort zone is a space of maintaining, oh no, because comfort zone, remember, is a place of no choice in inaction and those always lead to decline over time. It’s not a place of maintenance, no, not at all.
So if you’re in the fear zone, if you’re scared of something, that’s actually a good thing. This means when you’re scared, this means that you are actually ready to move forward, you’re ready to grow, you’re ready to make a choice, you’re ready to take action when you’re scared, but in this fear zone, there’s some things that you’re probably going to experience. The first is really like a lack of self confidence. “You’re like, well, I don’t know if I could do that because I can see this bad thing happening and I can see that bad happening. I can see three bad things happening and I have no idea. What if, what if all of these things happen. I don’t think I’m strong enough. I don’t think I can do this, I don’t think I can move forward. I don’t have any control over this.” Well, of course you don’t. Because remember, you’re out of a comfort zone.
Now you’re in a fear zone, you don’t have control anymore. If you make that choice, you take that action but that lack of self confidence will actually cause you to do something else, you’ll start to find excuses, you’ll start to start thinking things that are probably not even real that are not actually attached to reality as to why you’re not strong enough as to why that bad thing will happen. As to why Bad Thing number two will happen. As to why you take no action as to why you don’t make those choices, you will find excuses. Even for your reasons of lack of self confidence. This is the fear zone and in the zone, you have to be extra special careful because this is the danger of being in that fear zone and why this is the one part after you start thinking about getting out of your comfort zone and making a change in whatever it is.
This is the most dangerous part of the fear zone and why you don’t want to stay there long and I want to tell you this because it’s a good thing that you fear. It’s a really good thing that you fear because that means that you’re actually ready to contemplate something different but if you stay here too long in the fear zone, you will start to be affected by others opinions rather than what you know is right for you. The crazy part about this is this is a very vulnerable phase, in this fear zone. After you get outside the comfort zone on your way to growth are your excuses and your lack of self confidence will start to be amplified if you stay in fear too long without choice and without taking action because you are super vulnerable and open to being affected by others opinions, whether good or bad. Don’t stay in the zone too long but please understand that it’s good that you have a stopping off point here because this will actually allow you to start contemplating and start to realize and become self aware that where you have been, is not where you want to go. That’s the awesomeness of the fear zone, as long as you don’t stay there too long.
Now, when you start to get over these things, right, and you stop making up excuses, that are not attached to reality, when you when you start to realize, “Hey, I am strong, and I have a bit of self confidence that I can frickin do this,” okay, and you start to shove out those opinions of other people that are not experts that don’t know, that are not in your specific situation, in whatever, that’s when you can actually break out of that fear zone and move into the learning zone. This zone is actually really freaking cool. This is the place where you start to deal with your challenges and problems, where you actually start to absorb them in and say, “Okay, I can see what my next step is, I may not be able to see what steps number 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 are. But I know what this next one is and I’m ready to take it.” But you know, before I do, remember, before you were finding excuses in the fear zone, you might think well, I don’t know how to do that and that’s one of the excuses that you can make in the fear zone. But in the Learning Zone, you can start to acquire new skills, or gain the knowledge that you need for that first step.
Then when you take that first step, when you take that action, then you’ll be able to choose what your next step will be and take action there because you continuously learn along the way, because you’re accepting advice and wisdom from the right people that are around you, you’ll start to see the right people coming around you in this learning zone versus in the fear zone, when you’re affected by the opinions, not the knowledge, there’s a big difference there between the fear zone, and the learning zone with the people surrounding you isn’t in the fear zone, you’re affected by the opinions of others. But when you cross into the learning zone, now you’re affected by the knowledge and wisdom of others, because it’s the right people that are now in your circle.
This is almost like extending outside your comfort zone finally, to where you can deal with the challenges with your problems, to where you can acquire the new skills and put the right people around you. After you get over the fear. This is such an amazing place to be because you can start to feel movements, it still may be difficult, it still may be sucky in the learning phase, because you’re not out of it yet, but you’re dealing with it and you can start to have those little wins, there are no wins, no wins in the fear zone. In the Learning Zone, you can start to find those little wins. As you start to deal with your challenges and problems when you acquire those new skills. It’s phenomenal. It’s really cool. When I’ve seen people enter this from that fear zone and go into the learning zone. It’s like I get lit up because they start to get lit up because they become self aware and they start to be able to do all these things and have confidence in themselves because they took a step.
This is probably the longest zone on your way to grow. Now understand that we are still not in like the growth zone yet. This is the learning zone and it’s an incredible place to be and it’s an incredible place for an outsider like me that has a big heart to be able to watch people go through this zone. It’s incredible. We talked about the comfort zone we talked about that’s actually a place of decline. where you feel safe and in control. You only feel that you’re not actually safe, you’re not actually in control. Because you’re declining, you’re making no choice and taking no action. Then you’re in the fear zone where you have a lack of self confidence, you find excuses, and you’re affected by others opinions, not others knowledge and wisdom but others opinions that you don’t know, it’s just our opinion. Who cares? It’s a frickin opinion. That’s all it is. It’s not knowledge is not wisdom. It’s just an opinion and that’s why it keeps you scared because it’s not knowledge or wisdom. Then you’re in the Learning Zone, when you deal with challenges and problems that acquire new skills and this is the longest zone to sit in. It’s the most fun for an outsider to watch because it’s like a person is waking up right in front of you.
Then finally, after you’d start to deal with this meaning after you start to take action in the Learning Zone, then you move into the growth zone. This is an incredible threshold because it’s like a dividing line between the past, leaving that behind and then the present and future. Notice that you have to deal with your problems and challenges. First in the Learning Zone, that’s not growth people, that’s not growth, actually dealing with your problems, that’s just getting rid of your baggage. That’s chucking all the crap that you have, in your environment, changing your environment, the people, the jobs, the whatever, that’s not growing, that’s just ditching your baggage. So that you can actually cross that threshold into growth to where you can actually move up and you can find your purpose, you can live your dreams, you can set new goals, you can conquer your objectives. This is where you’re like riding high all the time and the only way to do that is because you already ditched your baggage in the Learning Zone. It’s so important to understand this that you are not growing, unless you’re dealing with your baggage and eliminating that baggage. You can’t because it weighs you down. It keeps you from growing.
Think about a helium balloon. There’s a certain number of balloons that you have to have to lift certain weights, right? But you can’t go find those balloons and lift those weights because those weights keep you down with that baggage that you have. I remember a big helium balloon that’s actually at Disney Springs and there’s a counter twin part of it like in Paris, and like how can that thing lift so much, and you see it go up and then there’s when that’s all around, it’s hard to control it because that wind is like the baggage in your life, all these other things, you have to get to a place of calm. By changing your environment, they only allow that bloom to go up when the environment is calm. That’s growth.
You’ve already dealt with your challenges and problems while you were learning, then you can grow and that growth zone is finding your purpose, living your dreams, setting new goals and conquering objectives. That’s actually when you cross into visualization and saying this is where I now know that I can be because I killed my excuses. I ditched the fake feelings of being safe and in control in my comfort zone. I have now acquired new skills. So I know that since I went through that I can do it again and again and again. Now I have self confidence because I know that I have these skills. I have dealt with my baggage and ditched my baggage and now I can grow.
Start to make that journey today. Start to make that journey and share this route with people that you know the need to hear because I feel that there are millions of people that need to hear this right now because they’re in a place where they feel stuck and that they’re accepting their demise because they continuously decline. Share this out because this will lift them up and give them a roadmap on where they’re going. If this resonated with you today, just lift your hands up wherever you’re at and be like man, this is what I needed. Start to move forward, friends have an awesome day.
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