43 Ways to Leave Your Comfort Zone and Rock Your Life

Leaving your comfort zone means doing something you’re normally not comfortable with, with the intention of beating the status quo and conquering your fears.

Successful people know the importance of pushing your boundaries and trying new things. You can’t get different results without doing something different, and doing the same thing over and over again wont help. Plus it’s also fun to break habits.

But how do you actually get started? I was looking for a list of ways to leave my comfort zone a while ago, but I couldn’t find any so I decided to make my own.

Below are 43 ways to leave your comfort zone. Some of them are simple, some require more effort and courage, and a few are probably pointless, but I assure you that you’ll feel great after having done them. The point of this list is to encourage you to think outside of the box and to break habits and beliefs that we all have. It’s only when you’re not afraid that you have the courage of trying new things, and it’s there that life starts to smile again.

Enough talking for now, here are 43 ways to leave your comfort zone and rock your life.

• Take a cold shower.
• Talk with five random people in the street.
• Wake up early and go out for a walk or with your bicycle.
• If you always order alcohol at a bar, order an orange juice or tea.
• Get rid of something you no longer use, once a day for thirty days.
• Try a different route for going to work.
• Try one of my 43 ways to make money.
• Cook something that you never ate before. Look up for some recipes online.
• Turn off your cellphone and computer for two days.
• Say yes next time someone asks you to go out, or ask someone else that you haven’t seen in a while to go out.
• Learn something that you don’t really like or that you think is useless, like some math or some words of a foreign language.
• Go out wearing something weird, or something that would catch other’s attention.
• Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while, surprise them.
• Switch to a different office chair.
• Next time you’re buying something, try to get a smaller price by asking a discount and negotiating. This is actually used all the times in some countries, so it might not be a challenge for many.
• Ask a stranger in the street what the current date is, and when they reply, tell them that what you really want to know is the current year. Note: this is certainly weird, but a sure way to beat your fear.
• Go to work with your bicycle if your work location is closer than 5 miles.
• Make a list of five areas where you usually spend money but that are not important (note: going to the gym IS important).
• Get outside your home within five minutes that you wake up in the morning. Do whatever you want outside, but stay out at least 20 minutes. Try to go to the bathroom first.
• Install a video camera and record yourself while working. Watch it later and pretend it’s someone else, judge how this person is spending their life, or even better do a live streaming so that everyone can see it and you’ll be more motivated to work.
• Lay down for 10 seconds in the ground without saying a word, then get up as if nothing happened (thanks Tim Ferris).
• Visit a new restaurant or bar instead of going always to the same one.
• If you’re always at home, pack some food and eat outside in the nature when the weather is nice.
• Help a homeless in some way, or donate something you don’t need anymore to charity.
• Call three random strangers and wish them a beautiful day.
• Do a free hugs event. Take someone with you and record the event, then post it online.
• Take a deep breath and try to conquer one of your biggest fears (altitude, flying, snakes or other animals, etc). Note: make sure you do this slowly and in total security. For example I’d not try to touch a venous snake just to conquer my fear, that would be stupid and dangerous.
• If you work from home, try working outside or in a coffee shop.
• Leave your parents home and live on your own for a month.
• Move to a different city or country, learn a new language.
• Beat fear of public speaking by doing some speech as soon as you have the opportunity.
• Next time you’re attending a show and the presenter asks for a voluntary to do something, be that voluntary.
• Give up an addiction for a week
• If you are single, walk up to a person of the different sex and tell them they are beautiful.
• If you have a free room, offer it for couchsurfing (without asking for money).
• If you don’t like sharing a room in a hostel with people from the other sex, try to leave your comfort zone by share it with them instead.
• Go to a meetup site and look for a people with the same interests as you, and ask to join them.
• If you’re trying to learn a new language, speak only that language for a week.
• Try barefoot running, or try running if you don’t run at all.
• Sleep semi-naked. Actually this might be challenging for someone. Don’t do this if it’s cold.
• Stop texting for a week. I bet this would be very hard for a lot of people. Also stop texting or using the phone while driving.
• Pick one (weird) part time job from craiglist and apply for it.
• Try reading a book instead of listening to music while commuting through bus.

What do you think of these ideas? I hope you’ve found at least one that would be enough challenging for you. I’d also love to hear in the comments below about other ideas you may have.

Posted on June 09 2010

You should subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Sharing is sexy!