Recently I was confronted with a feeling I'm used to from the past: the feeling of getting cold feet.
For me that moment of getting cold feet most of the time happens shortly before I'm about to do something I never did before.
I think this feeling is a sign of you heading towards the outside of your comfort zone. It's like a nagging feeling that wants to tell you "turn around and head back to that safe warm area!" it is often followed by some negative thoughts about what could possibly go wrong if you head outside of it.
The longer the way outside of the comfort zone, the colder your feet feel, the more you feel nervous and maybe even a bit of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of all the type of shit that could happen outside of that little zone you're in.
I learned to accept those feelings as normal. Staying away from new, in other words possibly dangerous, things is integrated into our human nature. After you accept that, it's easier to deal with it. In the past I often gave up my goals because of me feeling uncomfortable with the thought of heading outside of my comfort zone. I think I gave up simply because it was the easy way out. Turning around and heading back to the middle of my comfort zone, or in other words, my bed with my tv in front of it, felt easier than the things that lay outside of my comfort zone.
I'm happy that it "only" took me about 4 years (since reading TMF ) to realize that a life in my comfort zone equals a life in the Slowlane or on the Sidewalk.
In a thread, that I made a while ago, I compared the mindset for the journey to the Fastlane with a mindset you have while playing a video game. In video games you never question the possibility of you reaching point B so you wouldn't spend a milli-second thinking about staying at point A. The same mindset should be applied with your Fastlane journey, know that you can reach your goal, your point B and don't even think about staying at point A. In order to reach point B you have to leave point A and head towards the end of your comfort zone in the process of doing so. At some point on your journey you will need to cross the border of your comfort zone.
Because point B lays outside of your comfort zone. Wide outside of it. And don't even think about turning around and heading back to point A, the starting point, the Slowlane/Sidewalk life.
Be aware that leaving your comfort zone for the first time is just the beginning. As soon as you get used to something, you build a new comfort zone around it. Don't let yourself get trapped in a new comfort zone just because you left your first one. Sounds confusing? Imagine your initial comfort zone was the standard Slowlane life. You left it with starting your business and working on it, while your friends were doing all the usual stuff like partying and hanging out. You left that comfort zone of the known and went into the unknown. But after a while you got used to the formerly unknown, it slowly becomes the new known. It's up to you if you let it become a new comfort zone. Oh boy that was a bit confusing, even for myself.. Let's put it into pictures (please put on your image thinking now): view your road to/on the Fastlane as a ... well, as a road. If you stay too long at one point on that road (I hope you see yourself on the side of a road putting up a tent, right now) you build a new comfort zone and the longer you stay in that comfort zone, the bigger the danger of you not continuing your journey. If you stay somewhere on the side of your road, you won't reach the end of that road, you won't reach point B (your Fastlane business). So in order to keep driving along this road, don't put that f*cking tent up and keep driving. Don't take the process of the unknown becoming the known as a reason to stop your journey at that point. Don't stop just because you reached that unknown area of earning $1000 a month with your business, it may be a nice new comfort zone, but you won't reach the (yet) unknown area of $100,000 a month if you stay there.
There's a long road for you to go on your way to your Fastlane business, and most of that road is outside of your comfort zone.
In the end, it's a thing of perception: you can allow the feeling of getting cold feet to scare you and make you turn around to head back to the centre of your comfort zone. Or you can see it as a good sign that you are on the right road, a road with a border (of your comfort zone), that you have to pass in order to keep driving on that road to your Fastlane business, to your point B.
For me that moment of getting cold feet most of the time happens shortly before I'm about to do something I never did before.
I think this feeling is a sign of you heading towards the outside of your comfort zone. It's like a nagging feeling that wants to tell you "turn around and head back to that safe warm area!" it is often followed by some negative thoughts about what could possibly go wrong if you head outside of it.
The longer the way outside of the comfort zone, the colder your feet feel, the more you feel nervous and maybe even a bit of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of all the type of shit that could happen outside of that little zone you're in.
I learned to accept those feelings as normal. Staying away from new, in other words possibly dangerous, things is integrated into our human nature. After you accept that, it's easier to deal with it. In the past I often gave up my goals because of me feeling uncomfortable with the thought of heading outside of my comfort zone. I think I gave up simply because it was the easy way out. Turning around and heading back to the middle of my comfort zone, or in other words, my bed with my tv in front of it, felt easier than the things that lay outside of my comfort zone.
I'm happy that it "only" took me about 4 years (since reading TMF ) to realize that a life in my comfort zone equals a life in the Slowlane or on the Sidewalk.
In a thread, that I made a while ago, I compared the mindset for the journey to the Fastlane with a mindset you have while playing a video game. In video games you never question the possibility of you reaching point B so you wouldn't spend a milli-second thinking about staying at point A. The same mindset should be applied with your Fastlane journey, know that you can reach your goal, your point B and don't even think about staying at point A. In order to reach point B you have to leave point A and head towards the end of your comfort zone in the process of doing so. At some point on your journey you will need to cross the border of your comfort zone.
Because point B lays outside of your comfort zone. Wide outside of it. And don't even think about turning around and heading back to point A, the starting point, the Slowlane/Sidewalk life.
Be aware that leaving your comfort zone for the first time is just the beginning. As soon as you get used to something, you build a new comfort zone around it. Don't let yourself get trapped in a new comfort zone just because you left your first one. Sounds confusing? Imagine your initial comfort zone was the standard Slowlane life. You left it with starting your business and working on it, while your friends were doing all the usual stuff like partying and hanging out. You left that comfort zone of the known and went into the unknown. But after a while you got used to the formerly unknown, it slowly becomes the new known. It's up to you if you let it become a new comfort zone. Oh boy that was a bit confusing, even for myself.. Let's put it into pictures (please put on your image thinking now): view your road to/on the Fastlane as a ... well, as a road. If you stay too long at one point on that road (I hope you see yourself on the side of a road putting up a tent, right now) you build a new comfort zone and the longer you stay in that comfort zone, the bigger the danger of you not continuing your journey. If you stay somewhere on the side of your road, you won't reach the end of that road, you won't reach point B (your Fastlane business). So in order to keep driving along this road, don't put that f*cking tent up and keep driving. Don't take the process of the unknown becoming the known as a reason to stop your journey at that point. Don't stop just because you reached that unknown area of earning $1000 a month with your business, it may be a nice new comfort zone, but you won't reach the (yet) unknown area of $100,000 a month if you stay there.
There's a long road for you to go on your way to your Fastlane business, and most of that road is outside of your comfort zone.
In the end, it's a thing of perception: you can allow the feeling of getting cold feet to scare you and make you turn around to head back to the centre of your comfort zone. Or you can see it as a good sign that you are on the right road, a road with a border (of your comfort zone), that you have to pass in order to keep driving on that road to your Fastlane business, to your point B.
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