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Do you ever feel a rush of excitement when you are thinking about doing something new? I have. I was pumped, ready to face my latest adventure, only to have that feeling fade into the sunset. Have you ever experience that? If so, your response is typical. The bad news is, this “normal” response is what keeps so many people from ever going for what they want in life.
In the past, I had some excellent ideas, and I never acted on any of them. I was overly cautious about trying anything new. I know it can be excruciating to think about doing something different from what you are accustomed, however, if you want to achieve your dreams and your goals, you must step out of your comfort zone, but be careful, your subconscious mind can pull you right back toward that old safe zone.
Have you ever done anything throughout your day on complete auto-pilot? Simple tasks that you just get done without thinking about, your subconscious mind is responsible for that automatic behavior like your habits, and it takes over routine tasks and helps you to do them automatically.
Picture it like this; your subconscious mind is like a vast memory bank. Its capacity is virtually unlimited, and it permanently stores everything that ever happens to you. By the time you reach the age of 21, you have already permanently stored more than one hundred times the contents of the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica.
It has memorized all your comfort zones, and it works to keep you in them. Every time you try to create a new habit, your subconscious is pulling you right back to what is familiar. Try this experiment, hold your palm up in front of your face, and imagine that you have a lemon on your right palm before your eyes. Do you experience your mouth watering? The conscious mind knows that there is no lemon, and it’s only imagination. The subconscious mind is illogical and immediately believes the imaginary data put in your mind and as a result, your mouth waters.
Put simply, what you focus on, you attract. Any thought that is repeated over and over again will take an imprint within the subconscious mind. What is fascinating is that your subconscious mind cannot distinguish between what is real and what you imagine. So when you talk about your struggles and why you cannot achieve something, you are reaffirming these negative thoughts in your subconscious, and as such, it manifests itself in reality.
I read an article from Olivia Barrow, “Quitting a Job in a ‘never-give-up’ culture, and Ms. Barrow indicated that her doubts kicked into overdrive when she finally decided to quit her well-paying job to pursue her happiness. It took much fortitude to leave, but Ms. Barrow overcame her doubts and moved away from her comfort zone to pursue her dream.
Successful people crave something new despite their overwhelming achievements, simply because they are very aware of how quickly their comfort zone can turn into stagnation.
I am very, very conscious now about what I let into my space and what I am printing into my mind. It is sometimes difficult, especially if you have inherently negative people around you. However, to keep that focus, I read and listen to my motivation tape every day, make peace with my maker and use repetition of positive thoughts to weed out the doubts and the naysayers in my head.
You got to know yourself. If you want to reprogram your mind, you must be acutely aware of the people whom you let into your life; it is critical. The NBA finals in 2016 illustrate my point. Everyone, including yours, truly gave the Cavs no chance of winning the NBA championship after being down 3-1 to the Warriors.
Cavs came right back and won the title. After the game, Lebron James said, “I did not listen to the people who gave us no chance,” whom you allowed into your space, will have a tremendous influence on your life, and unconscionably your growth can be stymied or accelerated.
According to Steve Harvey, you got to jump. You see, your big dreams live outside of your comfort zone!
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About Gifford Thomas
I am the founder of Leadership First and the author of The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible. At Leadership First, we are committed to publishing the very best inspirational leadership quotes and articles to inspire our 123,000+ community of leaders to believe in the impossible, while creating an environment free from toxic, fearful and intimidating leadership. We believe everyone can and should enjoy their work, but it must start with the leadership leading by example. Follow our community of leaders HERE, and let's change the leadership status quo to help inspire and motivate our leaders to make a difference and create an organization their people will love.
You can download a copy of my book The Inspirational Leader and Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible by clicking on the word inspirational below:
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