I think everyone can agree with me that 2020 was a tough year. A year no one expected to turn out to be the way it has, where everything we knew, the way we lived, the way we worked, the way we interacted…changed. Nothing is the way it was. And as humans, we often hate that.

Change, for good or bad, is stressful. It requires adaptation, it requires modifying our thoughts and actions, it requires hard work. Change is never easy to deal with. And the worst thing about change: we don’t know what to expect on the other side, we cannot predict the outcome because what is new is also mysterious…that is why it scares the hell out of us. It’s taking a forced leap of faith into the unknown. As if someone pushed you from behind in a black hole with no light.

I felt exactly that when last year, after 11 years in the same company, the prospect of change was presented to me: change job, company, country, lifestyle…I was totally terrified to the core, and more than anything else, I was afraid of taking the wrong decision. What if I took the chance and it didn’t work out? What if I stayed and gave up on the opportunity that could open so many doors for me? You simply don’t know what it’s right from wrong.

I took my decision and honestly, I will never know if it was the right one for me. All I know is that I had to change and embrace the fact that things will never be the same anymore.

Robert Allen said “Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone”.

In my favorite book ( that you all know by now ) the author describes our comfort zone as a prison. “Most people drive through life with their psychological emergency brake on. They hold on to negative images about themselves or suffer the effects of powerful experiences they haven’t yet released. They stay in a comfort zone entirely of their own making. They maintain inaccurate beliefs about reality or harbor guilt and self-doubt. And when they try to achieve their goals, these negative images and pre-programmed comfort zones always cancel out their good intentions – no matter how hard they try” “Successful people, release their brakes by letting go” to ensure they never get stuck.

As Albert Einstein said “The significant problems we face, cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them”, so you must focus on thinking about the reality you want to create instead of complaining on where you are now. Do not limit your thoughts. Stop complaining about your present situation ( hence forcing your mind to focus on that instead of the future ).

As mentioned in my previous posts, it all comes down to a few factors in the end: belief in oneself, control of our thoughts and emotions, trust that when a door closes another one will eventually open, stop the fear of failure, control your fear, and that no matter what, you will grow in the process. You can add “get out of your comfort zone” to that list.

As human beings, we are resilient…we always find a way to make it work.