Why Change Is Not Scary and Dreadful

Instead, it can be the exact thing that you are looking for

“Change begins at the end of your comfort zone” — Roy T. Bennett

There is a natural resistance in all of us to change. It’s deep within us.

Change is stepping into a world of uncertainty, fear, loss of control, etc. We don’t like this.

In fact, our daily actions try to avoid situations that expose us to these types of feelings as much as possible.

This is why we have comfort zones that we create for ourselves. These zones allow us to feel warm, secure, and safe.

Don't get me wrong, warmth, safety, and security are good, but this does not mean that we are meant to stay permanently there.

The fallacy of our comfort zones is that they make us think we are living, when they can be holding us back.

But stepping out of these comfort zones and walking into change, as scary as it can be, is where you can truly find yourself and your destiny.

If the description above resonates with you, ask yourself if the fear of change has ever stopped you from taking chances in life.

Have you wondered what you are missing from not taking the opportunities that take you out of your comfort zone?

Have you asked yourself what kind of person you could become if you sought change and embraced it?

This sounds familiar to me. I lived in fear in all shapes and forms for a long time. I was my own worst enemy in this. My thoughts lived in a world of “what ifs.”

What if I look like a fool? What if I embarrassed myself? What if everyone points to me and laughs?

What if I fail!?

These types of thoughts held me back for a long, long time. As a result, my life remained stagnant. It didn’t go anywhere. Instead, I relied on alcohol and drugs to mask my fears and inadequacies.

That is the truth about how I coped with it.

When I eventually welcomed change, I began to live. When I took a chance on myself, the world opened. When I took those hard steps into the unknown, I discovered myself.

Let’s discuss some of the benefits of change that can happen to you as it did to me.

1) Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

One of the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone and into change, whether in a new job, volunteer work, group setting, etc…, is that you eventually discover specific abilities and talents that you may not have known you had.

How does this work?

By placing yourself into a new opportunity for change, you will be asked to do new things that challenge you. While doing these tasks, you will learn how to do them. And in learning how to do them, you will discover abilities and talents within you to accomplish those tasks.

Once this happens in one task, it gives you the confidence to take on the next one that arrives.

Then your confidence will grow based on your previous experiences. This builds on top of each other. It will then give you the confidence to embrace change because you were able to face a previous change and overcome it with success.

With this kind of stacking, your possibilities and potential become limitless with this kind of success and confidence.

Another benefit of stepping out of your comfort zone is learning to adapt.

You must learn to move and flow with your new situations if you leave your comfort zone. You are dealing with many unknown variables and people and must constantly shift to allow room for success.

As you do this and you see the excellent results that come from it, a couple of things can happen to you.

One is that you will see change not as a terrifying option anymore. You will know from previous experience that you will be able to adapt to whatever comes your way and succeed in whatever situation develops from it.

The other result is that you will, again, have more confidence in yourself. By learning that you can shift, move, and adapt when needed, you will be more willing to accept the challenges of change. You will be stronger and able to face what life throws at you.

2) New People and Opportunities

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change” — Jim Rohn

Many wonderful things happened when I decided to change my life, attack it, and not retreat from it.

Some of these gifts were the fantastic people I was able to meet.

You get ahead in life with the help of others. You do not do this life alone, and the people you meet in your life have the potential to elevate you and your position. Many times this happens in ways you can’t even imagine.

How you meet these people is by putting yourself out there. Life will not come to you. You have to go to it. By changing your life and taking yourself out of that comfort zone, you will expose yourself to individuals who can help you advance.

You will develop new friendships by proving who you are as a decent, talented, capable person. You’re circle of friends will improve, and your life will become much richer because of it.

Meeting certain individuals in my life has played a significant role in helping me turn my life around. Thanks to their guidance and support, I secured job opportunities for which I am immensely grateful.

These jobs allowed me to build a life I had hardly thought possible. It also gave me rewarding experiences because I could help people in their struggles and hard times.

These jobs invigorated my soul and gave my life much more depth.

These experiences can’t happen for you if you don’t take the steps toward growth and change. If you don’t seek it, you will not meet the individuals who become friends and colleagues.

You will not meet the people who could give you the chance for a life-changing job.

You won’t have jobs that challenge you, teach you about yourself, pay you well, and provide you with confidence.

If you wish to have these kinds of jobs, then you must take risks. You must open yourself up to the world. You must dig deep down and be courageous.

Again, you must go to life.

3) World Exposure

This is a very macro-level bonus to the benefits of change, but it’s true all the same. You may not see this mentioned too much when discussing the benefits of this topic, but from my experience, travel helped me grow and change the trajectory of my life.

Some years after turning my life around, I decided to follow up on a dream of traveling. I was nervous about taking this idea on because of fear of the unknown, and the “what ifs” kept piling up in my head.

I decided to walk through the fear and ignore the “what ifs.” I packed my backpack, got on the plane, and flew to Thailand.

From the changes I went through, as we discussed above, I was able to build myself up and, with nervous confidence, take on this travel dream that I had had for a long time.

Ultimately, this trip was a game changer for me and has shaped many of my decisions until today. This includes inspiring me to write for Medium.

I tell you this because you can also experience this if you embrace those challenging changes that come to you. Down your path of evolution and growth, travel can be something that can happen for you.

Traveling and seeing the world can be a big embrace of the growth you seek.

Because stepping into this unknown adventure will teach you about who you are.

It will challenge you, expose you to new experiences, and help you build confidence.

It will help you to see the world differently.

It will help you face different cultures and peoples and come out the other end all the better.

It can allow you to make new friends from different countries — friends who can help and support you in your future endeavors.

It can help you see life outside of the box.

It can help you become more of the person you are meant to be.

This doesn’t have to be seeing the outside world of your home, but it can also be the country you live in.

The point is to explore. Explore what’s outside of you while discovering who you are inside.

If you wish to stop watching the world through screens on Netflix, YouTube, and TV documentaries, then you can do this. You have to step up and walk through your fears and into your change.

If I could do it, you can do it too.

“Change” does not have to be a scary word. Instead, it can be the word that improves your life when you embrace it as a friend.

It can be the action that helps you live a more fulfilled life.

“We can not become what we want by remaining what we are” — Max Depree

My life changed when I stepped out of my comfort zone and finally sought the change I needed. Since then, everything has become filled with more value and with better personal connections with others.

Trust me, I am not looking to be perfect, but I am just looking to improve.

This can be possible for you too. I hope you rise above your comfort zone.

Today can be the day you begin changing your life.