Life is full of challenges – and it is often how we react to those challenges that decides if we grow and thrive –or default to a position where we concentrate on stress and anxiety. In an increasingly competitive world the risk takers, those who step out of their comfort zone and into the discomfort of uncertainty, will be those who will gain the most. No worthwhile ambition can be achieved from the safety of our comfort zone – we need to challenge assumptions, push boundaries and give up the security of the known to achieve success.

Most motivators are good at telling us what we SHOULD be doing but maybe it is time to start looking at the other side of the coin – what are we doing that is keeping us stuck where we are.

1. Our self-imposed boundaries. ‘But I’ve always done it this way.’
2. Blaming someone else. ‘You don’t want me to change.’
3. Focusing on the problem. By concentrating on the situation, you don’t allow yourself to think of solutions.
4. Procrastination. You will make changes – just not until tomorrow. Or maybe the next day – or maybe never!

Not everything you do will be guaranteed a success – but it can be the willingness to make mistakes that will allow you to accomplish beyond what is even dreamed of.  John F. Kennedy said, “Nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished with a guarantee of success.”

Look forward to where you see yourself in five or ten years’ time – who do you want to be, what do you want to be doing?  Ten years from now there will be people who are amazingly successful – these people will have taken risks, strayed outside of their comfort zone and stretched themselves beyond what they thought themselves capable of. Will you be one of them?

Here’s how –

1. START – just turning up means you are half way there! Starting anything is the hardest part – day one of a diet, signing up to the gym.
2.  DON’T GIVE UP – once you have put the time and energy into turning up – don’t stop. Don’t make excuses – just keep going.
3.  LEARN TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE – Just pretend! There is a saying – ‘fake it until you make it.’
4. ADMIT YOUR MISTAKES – and own them. Clever people know that a mistake is not failure – it is a chance to learn and improve.
5. ACKNOWLEDGE EVERY VICTORY – Be self-aware, and realise how you are changing and improving.
6. AND DO IT AGAIN! Zig Ziglar said ‘repetition is the mother of learning, and the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.’ The more you do something, the more natural it becomes, and the more confident you become.

You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. – Wayne Gretzky