Nothing Grows in a Comfort Zone

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

neural pathways, mind, comfort zone, grow, fear, carve, create, life, path, terror barrier, bs, podcast, talking, inspired action, space, work, requires, stuck, exhale, habit

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I have a question for you. Nothing grows in a comfort zone. True or False? Well, someone in my community said false BS grows in a comfort zone. So stick with me for today's episode, where we're going to talk about what it really is that we're cultivating when we choose to stay in our comfort zone.

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The following was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the studio 21 podcast cafe. This is the United Podcast Network.

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Welcome to rat race reboot. I'm your host, Laura Noel. And as a certified coach and former 27 year military leader, each week, I provide bite sized mindset pivots that will help you reset your mind reawaken your spirit and regain your control. Hello, everyone, and welcome, welcome. I thought that was a really great answer. So this was somebody in one of my Facebook communities. And he said false BS grows in a comfort zone. And I thought about that. And you know, he's right. And what he means by Bs is, our parent homes are our programming, our mental programming those false beliefs that keep us stuck in our comfort zone. Think about it. If you are going to make a decision toward moving in a direction toward a goal. And you hesitate, you leave a lot of space in there for the fear to fester and grow for the indecision to grow. You're stuck in analysis, paralysis, those are all of your BS thoughts and thinking that's keeping you stuck. So when you don't move, all of that grows when you choose not to break through. And you've heard me talk about the terror barrier when you choose not to break through that terror barrier, that paper thin piece of fear that's standing in your way, when you crash through it and get to the other side, you realize how tissue paper thin that fear really was. But when you choose to sit there, in your comfort zone, all of the fears and worries and doubts just seem to grow. And here's the interesting thing, when we choose to not take action to Oh, I'm gonna think about it a little bit more. We're training our brain to continually do that we're training our brain to not break through the fear. We're training our brain to make excuses and to grow more excuses and more excuses. And you know, before we know it, we get really good at quitting, we get really good at making excuses. And we're sitting in our lives, and a lot of people I talked to or are just not they're appreciative. They're grateful of a lot of the things that they have in their lives. But they know that there's so much more to them than what's going on right now. There, they know that they could be do or have so much more and make a tremendous impact in the world. Yet their fear is keeping them stuck. They're not satisfied. And so when we sit in that comfort zone, and we're kind of cultivating those excuses and more fears, and more reasons to stay in analysis, paralysis, it's just a lot more difficult to finally break through that that terror barrier. But what we're doing is we're strengthening if you've heard hebbs Law, neurons that fire together, wire together. So when we say, All right, I'm gonna make space. I'm talking to a lot of high achievers here on this show. I'm one of them. And I can get pulled into my work like the next person, really, I have to consciously work at it and force myself to take breaks and force myself to do the things that are important to me that I know are important to me, it's hard to pull myself away from my work. One because I love it. It doesn't feel like work, but to because I know that having human connection and doing things other things that bring me joy that make me a well rounded person are great for my health and well being and for cultivating relationships. But when we continually say to ourselves, okay, I'm gonna create space, I'm going to go to that ballgame, or I'm going to go to that dinner, I'm going to go to that event or I'm going to go on that trip with my friends or my significant other, I'm going to make the space and then something comes up and we don't do it. What we're really doing is we're strengthening those, those neural pathways that keep us creating the same results over and over and over again. So what it requires from you is to make a decision that you You're not going to let your brain lead you that you're going to use your mind. And you're going to think and you're going to be the leader of yourself, no matter the circumstances. Now, when you're creating a change in mindset, it requires a change of habit. And it's not enough to simply change your behavior. So you could say, in the circumstance, I'm going to go on the trip, and you force yourself to go on that trip. Great. You did it one time, but you didn't. You didn't change a habit, it requires repetition of a new idea, and the action to form a new habit. So when you do that, one time, when you push away from your desk, and you do something different, you are forming new neural pathways, but they're not really grooved in yet, if you think about, like, I think about this one path that I used to walk from and through, when I would walk from my house to the beach in Kailua, Hawaii, I miss that place, it's raining today. And the path was really worn out. And you could see where hundreds of 1000s of people would use that path to go from the park, to the beach. But sometimes I would have my dogs with me, and I would want to carve out a new path. And so I would put my footprints on the grass, leading to the sand and it would carve a new pathway. Now, if I didn't go back there the next day, you know, the grass would kind of spring up again, and you wouldn't see where I had previously stepped. Well think about neural pathways as the same kind of thing is that path that you're working you're walking on. So your habitual behavior is like that worn out groove that path that you're walking through, day in and day out. But you want to make a new decision, you want to create the life that you've dreamed of, you want to have space, you want to be more effective and less time, so that you can enjoy the work you're doing and enjoy the relationships that means so much to you and pursue your passions. So that's going to require you to get off of that well

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worn path and carve a new one. But you're going to have to make that decision day in and day out until it becomes a habit until you can really strengthen those neural pathways. So think about that for a moment. Think about, you know, where are you telling yourself, I'm going to do better next time? Where are you telling yourself and beating yourself up for not showing up as the person you want to show up as it's not your fault. It's how our brain is wired. But now that you know this, it is your responsibility. And I'm really excited because we're going to be talking about responsibility next week on our podcast. But I want you to really consider that. And let's just take a few moments right now this is a really a short one to think about. Where in your life. Are you? Is it Groundhog Day? Are you telling yourself the same thing over and over again? And bring that to your mind? And imagine that you are following through exactly the way you promised yourself and others. How does that feel? How does it feel being the boss of you and not allowing your circumstances to rule you and your life, your relationships.

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So take a deep inhale right here. And exhale, relax. Take another deep inhale and exhale take one last deep inhale expanding any areas of tightness and then exhale and let it all melt away Imagine you are following through exactly the way you promise yourself and others what kind of impact is that having on your self esteem?

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How is it impacting your family to see your bright and shining face at that game or that school play? Or celebrating that important milestone with somebody you love? Bring them to mind Seeing their face light up, as you are not only there, but you're present in the moment and fully enjoying. And I want you to sit with that image for a moment

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because if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand this is meant for you. And you will never seriously want something that you cannot have.

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And if you're sitting by pen and paper, I want you to write down any ideas that kind of bubble up. Maybe it's to connect with somebody, maybe it's just to spontaneously take a walk in the park, whatever that is. Write it down and act on it. That's what I call taking inspired action. Taking inspired action is such an important part of this. I want you to listen to these episodes. And then I want you to take action, I want you to apply the lessons that we're talking about into your life, take it into your life. Because we're working on changing your mind and your habitual way of thinking and bringing it into action. That's how you're going to see change over the long time. They're just little bite sized pieces of information that you can take with you. So I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you need a little bit of support and figuring out where your sticking points are. I want you to check out our show notes and book a call with me 15 minutes with me and I'll get you pointed in the right direction. My calendar is in the show notes. Also go to rat race reboot.com And wherever you listen to your podcasts, please take the time to leave a five star review. It really matters it helps us get this message out to more people. So again, thank you again for joining us, every member everything is created twice, first in your mind, and then in physical form. I'll see you next week.

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The views and opinions expressed by the hosts guests or callers of this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the studio 21 podcast cafe, the United Podcast Network its partners or affiliates.