Dr. Andrew Fix here! Today I wanted to talk about something that I’m pretty passionate about, but also, something I think a lot of you will relate to.

And that’s.. getting out of your comfort zone!

So much of our life, whether that’s work, whether that’s our cars, our homes, like so much stuff that we have and how our life unfolds is made to make us more comfortable. One example that comes to mind is air conditioning.

It was hot this summer in Colorado. How uncomfortable would you be if you didn’t have AC at your home? There are many people in the world that don’t have that, and they deal with that on a day in, day out basis. Same thing with heat in the wintertime. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be if you didn’t have that.

I also think of suitcases. We use rolling luggage and suitcases when we’re traveling. That’s just an invention that was made to make our lives more comfortable, a little less stressful, a little easier, and it’s great, but one drop in the bucket over and over and over again, a lot of things are making it harder for you to step out of that comfort and to tap into getting outside of your comfort zone and make things a little bit more challenging.

I used to have a background on my phone of a quote that said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” And I must have had that on there for years. Now I have a Green Bay Packers logo or something that hasn’t changed in a while. But I remember having that,”Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” and it was just my daily reminder when I looked at my phone to do some hard things and not take the easy way out on things.. simply because that’s not always the best way to go about it.

So let me give you an example of getting outside of your comfort zone:

It’s cold outside but you need to get in your walk for the day. You could either..

1. Get in your warm car and drive to the gym to walk on the treadmill
2. Put a few layers on and walk outside in the 45 degree weather

I would be willing to bet that anytime you’ve stepped outside of your comfort zone, no matter how small it is, even though it’s a little difficult at first, you’ve never regretted making that decision after it’s all said and done, right?

It’s a little uncomfortable to push yourself in a workout and make yourself feel uncomfortable, but after that workout is over, do you regret doing it?

And I almost like to look at the ability to put yourself into good stressful situations and to get out of your comfort zone like a muscle that you can flex.

The more bicep curls you do, if you’re using weight that’s challenging, probably the stronger and more endurance your biceps muscle is going to get. I feel like the same thing is true for getting out of our comfort zone. The more we do these little things, the more they feel like little wins and they stack on top of each other, it’s like a snowball or a domino effect in a positive direction. It makes it a little bit easier the next time because you can look back on the experiences that you’ve had before in these little instances where you push yourself just enough outside of your comfort zone to where you can say, “well, I’ve done that before, so I can do this! I’ve conquered that obstacle and jumped over that hurdle before, so I can do it this time.”

And what you can do is you can take on slightly larger and slightly larger challenges without it being extremely stressful or inconvenient. This is how I feel about getting into the sauna or getting into an ice bath. It’s exposing yourself and exposing your body to an in-the-moment stressful situation.

It’s hot, it’s sweaty, it’s hard to breathe or it’s cold and it takes your breath away. It’s uncomfortable to sit there, but you feel better afterwards. And in the moment it’s a little stressful and it’s uncomfortable, but then afterwards, you’re like, “I’m glad I did that.”

Get out there and do hard things.

Get out of your comfort zone. No matter how small or big that is. Whether it’s from an exercise standpoint. Whether it’s for doing something spontaneous with your spouse or significant other. Whether it’s asking that person out on a date that you’ve been avoiding because it’s a little scary.

Push yourself outside of that comfort zone. And I believe that you will probably be glad you did when it’s all said and done and not have any regrets about it.