►► [📷 🐾] Leave your comfy perch! First step to a 'happening' life (Original photos and thoughts)

Get out of your comfort zone - Let AWESOME things happen

"Everything you have ever wanted is one step outside your comfort zone"

As I mentioned in my earlier post on Swooping @ opportunity, my photography walk by the lakeshore on Sunday offered many opportunities for seeing some really interesting birds and their approach to life.

This buzzard was sitting so still at a rocky perch that it seemed asleep. The perch it had selected was quite comfy. Solid, warm with the sun nicely towards the back and with a calming breeze. For a buzzard, a more secure and comfortable perch would have been difficult to find in that location.

How long would the buzzard just sit there and be comfortable, I wondered. The way it perched, I doubted if it would ever leave. What happened next?

It took off! It chose to leave it's comfy perch. I managed to capture that precise instant in my Nikon P900! Here is the Hi-res image.

---

---

What makes birds, and for that matter, even some individuals, leave their comfortable perches ?

A perch, in the metaphorical sense, is made up of the physical or mental surroundings that we are comfortable in. We feel 'at home' in such surroundings and are extremely reluctant to leave them. However, it is important to break free of our boundaries and step out of our comfort zone. Especially the mental one!

---

---

Comfort zone provides us with the 'tranquilizers' of low anxiety, low stress and regular happiness. It is but natural for humans to desire such bliss on a regular basis. However, we must step out!

Theories on comfort zone and experimentation about it go as far back as 1908. In a conclusion drawn from their 1908 experiment, psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson determined that, generally normal steady performance is observed when subjects are within comfort zone. When the subjects were slightly out of comfort zone, however, an enhanced performance was observed. The subjects were in a place just beyond their comfort zone and their anxiety was triggered but did not overpower them. This zone is known as 'Optimal anxiety' zone.

When we step out of our comfort zone and get into the 'Optimal anxiety' zone, we get the following advantages:

• More productivity: When we are in our comfort zone, we tend to do the minimal thing required to get work done. We also use the excuse of being 'busy' to be within our comfort zone and avoid trying anything new.

• Easier to deal with change: We can adopt more easily when we face unexpected change

• More creativity: As we become more comfortable with stepping out of our comfort zone, we create more opportunities for ourselves to be creative. In turn, our creativeness creates awesome opportunities for us.

(Image Credit)

---

---

As we have discussed before, stepping out of the comfort zone is against our natural tendency. Therefore, it is not an easy thing to do for most of us - unless we take some steps in the right direction and head out to the woods, metaphorically.

Being outside our comfort zone is good - as long as we do not overdo it. We do not want ourselves to be pushed towards 'real anxiety'.

What are the steps then to make ourselves more amenable to stepping out of our comfort zone? It all comes down to how we change our mind set and how we practice. Getting away from 'routine' and 'what feels comfortable' is also a major part of it.

• Change the way you do day-to-day things: Small everyday things get us into a 'routine' and 'pattern'. It is important to break this pattern. Gentlemen, if you think being clean shaven gives you better chances with ladies, try growing a stubble for a few days. Ladies, if you think that only diet makes you look more attractive, try a great smile and no diet for a few days..... It may work or not, but our mind will get out of the habit of 'pattern'.

• Take time to make decisions or take snap decisions - Well, is this a contradiction? No - we must apply whichever is the opposite of our 'routine' decision making process. Take a few decisions using the method opposite to what we are used to. Surprising results may be right around the corner!

• Do it step by step - If we are nervous about speaking to girls, we need not attempt to ask the most popular cheerleader girl on a dinner and dancing date at the first attempt. We do not want to commit suicide, do we ? We should break down the task in a number of small steps. Saying Hello is probably the first one and a good step! (If you are looking for next steps then contact me on Steemit Chat and I will explain further. Be warned though, that it may turn out to be the case of 'blind leading blind' LOL)

In conclusion - To unleash our creativity and have opportunities knock at our doors, we must get out of our comfort zone and leave that comfortable perch, get out from hiding behind our mother's skirts, put our thinking hats on - whatever we want to call it. Like Nike tells us so many times we must 'Just Do It'!!

Steemians, please share your experiences and views on how you got out of your comfort zone. Please share what results you achieved. It will be great to get more perspective and a lively dialogue going on the subject.

Note: All images except for the wildlife photo and the title image created by me are from pixabay.com