Comfort Zone

I'll never forget my first day of college. This is because it was the furthest I had ever stepped from being in my comfort zone. I had lived at home for 18 years, had the same friends and gone to the same school for a very long time. All of the sudden, all of that was changing and wasn't sure I would be able to handle it. While it was a very dramatic change, I quickly realized everything that I could gain from the situation. I could be a new person and I could live how I wanted (to an extent). Looking back, that was one of the greatest days of my life; I grew more on that day than I had ever grown before.

Being outside of your comfort zone is a good thing. When we become too relaxed with the way we live, we get lazy and start to lower standards for ourselves. If we get out of that comfort zone, we are constantly forced to adapt, change, and better ourselves. Sure, it's nice to have security and to know that there are things we can always rely on. But, it is also important to constantly challenge ourselves with something new and foreign as well.

Can you think of a time when stepping outside your comfort zone helped to improve your life in some way?

Live in the Now

Something that always seems to be a struggle for most people is thinking about things that have already happened. Often times we dwell on regrets or moments where we wished something else had happened. This can be a difficult thing to overcome because many of us want to feel sorry for ourselves and like to brood over how bad things have been. I have learned that this behavior only leads to even more regrets or more missed moments of opportunity. This is because we are not focused on what really matters: the present. Instead of thinking about moments that have already passed, we should be thinking about what we can do right now to improve things. The present is the only time where you can actually make changes. And once we make changes in our present, our futures will be greatly improved.