 Got something big you want to do but you're holding off and you don't know why? It's time to step out of your comfort zone. Welcome back and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. We all like to feel safe but sometimes that need to feel safe keeps us where we're comfortable instead of where we need to be to achieve our goals. Today I'll give you four tips to help you get out of your comfort zone. And stay tuned to the end because I'm going to give you a link to download our free leadership development plan workbook that'll help you set and accomplish your goals for the next two, five, and ten years. Speaking from personal experience sometimes I take a long time to get out of my comfort zone. When I'm starting a new activity or joining a new group sometimes I sit on the sidelines and I don't participate as much as I'd like to and it frustrates me a little bit because I know I should. I remember when I was in my early 20s I was really excited about scuba diving. I had read some of the Clive Custler books and I really wanted to get out there and see the world in a way that most people never get to see. But something was holding me back and I couldn't really figure it out why and I understand now that I was nervous about getting outside of my comfort zone and I found ways to get past it. Didn't realize what I was doing at the time but I'm going to give you four tips today if you're in the same situation that you can use to help get out of your comfort zone. Tip number one if you're not following through on something you really want to do is to ask yourself why. Some of this comes back to basic human nature whether that's in our DNA or it's learned behavior but in the ancient times if you stuck your head in the cave and there was a predator around you might get hurt or killed and that would ruin your entire day. Now in the modern world we don't have it so tough. There's not as much physical danger although there is some but even if there isn't physical danger in what we're doing sometimes sticking our neck out and taking a position or making a stand can subject us to social consequences or criticism and we're not always prepared to step out of our comfort zone to do that. So first ask yourself is there life and limb danger to what it is I want to go do and if there is what can I do to mitigate the risk of that when I do this activity. There are lots of activities like skydiving scuba diving and rock climbing that people do every day and mitigate that risk successfully so the first question to ask is there physical danger and what can I do to mitigate that risk. Now what can you do about the social consequences now you might not think an activity like scuba diving would have social consequences that come along with it but your family might have an opinion about scuba diving they might have heard of the dangerous they might have heard you get eaten by a shark they might have heard you could get stuck in a wreck. Those are all things that are absolutely possible to happen but by doing your research of how you mitigate the risk you can share that with the people who care about you and are concerned about your safety and then you can mitigate some of that social risk that goes along with stepping out of your comfort zone. Tip number two for getting out of your comfort zone is to take one step even if it's a small one. To go back to my scuba diving example back when I was looking into this and taking a really long time to pull the trigger my dad and my stepmom came out to visit me in California where I was living at the time and we went to Catalina Island and for some reason while they were looking at one of the shops on Catalina Island I went into the dive shop next door and I just started looking at the equipment and one of the guys who worked there came up to me and started talking to me and he told me what the equipment did and he told me how it made you safer while you were doing diving and what it was all for and he told me what you learn in certification classes to prepare you for when you do go diving and so I didn't pull the trigger right away on that but I did feel a lot better so after a couple more trips to some dive shops and learned a little bit more I did finally pull the trigger and I signed up for scuba diving classes and I got certified and I got out of my comfort zone and went and started becoming a scuba diver. One of the best things you can do when you want to go do a new activity is to find some friends who want to do it too. First this makes things a lot more fun because you're not doing it by yourself and it also leads us to tip number three which is to build a team around yourself to help you step out of your comfort zone. Doing things with friends, finding friends who are interested in trying the thing you want to go try that's outside of your comfort zone is a great way to learn a little bit more about what you're doing to support each other, to answer each other's questions and to help push each other out of your comfort zone. So if you're still struggling after doing the first two steps to get out of your comfort zone, find a group of friends, build a team around you and support each other to help all get out of your comfort zones on this new activity. The last tip I have for you today is to just try it someone else's way. The people who really care about us and want to succeed are always giving us advice to try to help us. I know sometimes that advice is unwanted and I know sometimes we don't think that advice is the right thing to do or the right advice to follow but just try it someone else's way just once and see how it goes and I know this is hard to do I'm really stubborn sometimes I don't always like to take advice from other people but I find myself when I'm not making progress on something I find that maybe I'm stuck in my comfort zone and this could be what's happening to you too so I just try it someone else's way and see how it turns out maybe it turns out good maybe it turns out bad but I took the step I tried it so just trying something someone else's way following a little piece of advice especially if it's easy to do is a great way to recognize maybe we're stuck in our own comfort zone and maybe this is a good way to step out of it. So now you've got four new tools that you can use when you're not moving forward on something and you don't know why. Whether you're talking about scuba diving or you're not moving as far or as fast in your career as you'd like to you could be stuck in your comfort zone and don't even know it. Give these four tips a try this week when you're making decisions and taking actions and I guarantee they'll help you step out of your comfort zone. If you found this helpful please like comment and share it with a friend or co-worker click on that link below in the description that'll take you to where you can download your free leadership development plan workbook and start building a plan of action for your career for the next two five to ten years. If you have any business or leadership questions leave them in the comments below we'd love to hear from you or email us at info at evilgeniusleadership.com. EvilGeniusleadership.com is also where you can find out about our coaching programs so if you want to do some more one-on-one training check those out as well. Thanks for watching today I really appreciate it and remember the future is out there. Lead the way.