Eitan Birshan dot Com

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

It’s quiet funny, we desire to get more and more comfort, But the true freedom is found outside our current boundaries. Protecting your comfort zone may seem as the most reasonable thing to do, but taking risks and moving out of that zone, can bring you many great gifts. So where to start your journey?

I believe awareness is the first step and it precedes any major change in your life. I think that spending some time alone each day in order to reflect can really put your life on the fast track. In today’s culture we rarely have a few minutes for ourselves to sit and think quietly. Thinking and being aware to what you are currently doing in your life is one of the best formulas to get better. I try to spend half an hour a day reflecting, thinking what am I doing right and what am I avoiding from doing, just to protect my current comfort zone.

Put it a goal to do the things you know you need to do, whether you like it or not. When you put on a new pair of shoes, they are not so comfortable at the beginning and it may take some time for you to get use to them. The same way goes with every new habit you try to adjust for your life. Undergoing some discomfort for a short period of time can bring you great rewards for the future- the question is what do you prefer? The best thing about getting out of your comfort zone is the sense of “high” that you get every time you manage to do something that was considered impossible by you.

I want to share a short story from my past. A few years back, I needed to give lectures from time to time. I must say that only thinking about standing in front of a large crowd made me very nervous. Anyhow I knew only one thing- my goal was to get out of my comfort zone (which in this case was avoiding as much as I can from giving lectures). I didn’t make it a goal to give the best lectures in the world. I made another goal- to tackle my fear, to face the discomfort and win. I set a goal to make as many lectures as I could and to take each chance I have to acquire more experience. The first time I was nervous, the second time was much better and after 10 more times It felt pretty natural for me. I don’t know what stops you and where are the boundaries of your comfort zone, but you should make it a goal to expand those boundaries and to aim to act as if you have no restraints.

Taking the time to stop and think pays off, to analyze why we do what we do and what stops us from doing or achieving what we want. I try to take the time and find new ways to get better in my life- to challenge myself, to stretch and getting where I want. It’s an endless road, but it’s rewarding- getting out of your comfort zone demands a lot of courage and persistence, but the satisfaction and happiness that come along with it make it all worthwhile.

Some of My Favorite Quotes..

A great quote contains a wealth of wisdom in a single line. Here are some of my favorite ones…

“Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.” Thomas Edison

“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it- and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. It will never sit down on a hot stove lid again- and that is well; but it will never sit down a cold one anymore.” Mark Twain

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Druker

“Be the change that you wish to see most in your world.” Gandhi

“It is not enough to be busy, so are the aunts. The question is what are you so busy about?” Thoreau

Have a great day..

Thinking Long Term - Building Assets

Well, a lot have happened for me lately.. After I had a great few months in work, I had the worst 2 months of my career. I knew from the start, that being self employed, had two sides. I can sometimes make a lot of profits and I can sometimes make none or even lose money. There is absolutely no guarantee… I wake up in the morning and I know that I’m the only one that is in charge of my performance, no one else, no boss, nothing.. When I am doing great it’s great, but when things are going wrong, I am the only one to blame.. Fortunately, every weak period, forces me to think what went wrong and how I can become better in the future. This period yielded some conclusions for me..

1. Being focused- I love the the famous saying “don’t count your chickens before they are hatched”. I think that being down to earth and to keep working diligently, no matter what, is the best antidote for weak periods in life/business. Weak periods will come in the future, that’s for sure, but being focused keeps them as short as possible.

2. Being Humble - it is easy to brag, yet it’s a lot more challenging to consider your words and see if they are really useful. Even though I consider myself pretty humble most of the time, there were a few times when I bragged about my work and I regret those. I believe the saying “the tree that has the most fruit is the tree that bends to the ground”. I intend to implement it more in the future..

3. Thinking long term and building assets. I think that having assets, that produce income whether you work or not, is a very important aspect in business. I know that in the last two months, even though they were not successful at all for me as far as my business went, I still had a little stream of income going in from a few assets I have (a couple of websites and services online). Building more assets is one of the ways to become more successful and I plan to keep doing so. I know it requires a lot of work, since every new project needs time and attention. However, I intend to keep planting seeds for the future.. In general, I believe in building assets, not just in business- I think that when you think long term you can benefit from it. I have goals written in my calendar for twenty years from now and I hope to achieve them. Some of them are financial, some of them concern my loved ones, some are related to my hobbies or to other causes that I see as worthy (for me it’s instructing Karate, to keep volunteering etc..). I just think that it’s good to think for the long term from time to time . I love this quote “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant” Robert Louis Stevenson.