Why Is It Important to Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone? Comfort zone is called a comfort zone for a reason – because you’re used to do things there and you feel comfortable about it. But being in your comfort zone is not going to help you grow it leaves you exactly where you are. When you stay in your comfort zone for a long time, it kills productivity, creativity and growth. Think about it, if you do what you have always done, what do you expect? Different results? I don't think so. Great outcomes require great inputs and often they do not come until you try something new. You’re not going to create anything new in your life. Your life becomes boring because things are expected. And the next thing you know is that you refuse to make a change because you have been so comfortable in doing what you have always done, and you are afraid to do things differently. The brain likes repetition and when you do something out of the ordinary it may feel awkward and scary. This is what kills growth. And this is what prevents most people from going after their goals and dreams. People wanted to start a new exercise program, but they are worried about uncertainty and afraid if they don't see results or won't be able to endure. People wanted to invest in stocks and real estate, but they doubt if they are going to make money and if the market will continue to perform. People want to start a new relationship but are worried they may waste their time and end up broken hearted. And due to all these doubts, fears, and worries, people choose to procrastinate and stay where they are. They become stagnant and refuse to make changes in different areas of their life. Being too comfortable kills your drive and desire to succeed. Hence, stop staying in your comfort zone for too long. From time to time, you need to do something to challenge yourself and spice things up. Here are 5 reasons why stepping outside of your comfort zone is important if you want to live a great life… 1. You’re able to upgrade yourself and become wiser, better, faster, and stronger Success is not so much about how big your goals and dreams are, but rather, it is about how big and how much you can grow. Like the one quote says "do something that scares you everyday". Even if it is a small change every day, they make all the difference. I like the example given by Harv Eker in his best-selling book, Secrets of The Millionaire Mind. In the book, Eker said that it is not the size of the problem or your goal that is the issue, the real issue is the size of you. Imagine if you are playing games and your character is at level 3. When you face an enemy at level 5, it will be a tough battle for your character because his level is too low. What if you upgraded your character and becomes level 10? The same level-5 enemy will become an easy fight for your character. You can win the battle easily. This is exactly what is happening in our lives. We think that earning $10,000 a month is difficult and challenging because our levels are low. But for someone who is already playing at a higher level where they are earning $100,000 a month, earning $10,000 a month will not be an issue at all. It is your level that determines your success and the results you get in life. Therefore, work on upgrading yourself, your skills, your knowledge, and improve your character to become wiser, better, faster, and stronger. When you become wiser, more skillful, and more knowledgeable, you can attract greater success. For example, if you want to earn $100,000 a month, you first need to develop the skills and knowledge on how to earn that amount of money and then maintaining it. There is no way you can make $100,000 a month if you don’t have the right mindset and skill to earn and manage it. Remember this: You can’t get rich thinking poor. This is why getting out of your comfort zone is important. When you do something you have never done before, you will get different results that you have never got before. And the only way to do so is to venture out of your comfort zone and do things that are uncomfortable. 2. You become more resilient Another important benefit of stepping out of your comfort zone is that it can make you more resilient. We all know that success is not something easy to achieve. If it was easy, everybody will be successful, but because it is difficult, achieving it requires your ability to bounce back from failure and learn quickly from your mistakes. Many people give up when they face difficulties or when they fail at something. Successful people are resilient people who look at mistakes and failures differently. Like what Thomas Edison said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The more you venture out of your comfort zone, the more you will understand that failures and mistakes are nothing but lessons and experience you can utilize to continue growing and moving forward. And if you want to be successful, reach greater heights in your life, and make your dreams a reality, you must gain the experience to become wiser. This is why people who are NOT afraid to try out new things usually are more resilient, and they tend to be more successful in life. Do you know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has ever tried. So, don’t be afraid to fail. Many people got it wrong to think that failure is the opposite of success. Wrong! Failure is what produces success! Think about it, success is the results of experience. And where do we gain the most experience from? Failure. Failure makes you stronger, wiser, more skillful, and more resilient. You celebrate when you succeed. But you ponder and learn the most when you fail. This is why it is important to challenge yourself and do the uncomfortable so that you can expand your comfort zone. 3. You become more confident Again, the more you try out new things, regardless of the failures, the better you become. And when you know what to do, you become more confident about yourself and your abilities. Think about it, if you have never been to a foreign country, going there the first time may sound scary and you may feel a little worried or anxious. But if you have been to that country many times before, you will have better confidence and become used to it. Just like everything else in life, regardless of whether it is to start a weight loss program, cook for the poor, quit your job to start a new business venture, everything is uncomfortable in the beginning, when you don’t have much experience. But once you get used to it, once you do it over and over again, things will become easy. Your confidence soar and you become better and better at it. This is how successful people become great at what they do! And this is how you can become great at what you do too! Just practice, practice and practice some more, learn, and train to become better. The more you perform and improve on your work, the better and the more confident you become. Confidence is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. People lack confidence because they don’t challenge themselves to venture out of their comfort zone. The more you do the things that scare you, the less scary they become. If you want to achieve extraordinary results and become the best version of yourself, you must have the courage to challenge yourself and deliver a great job. That’s how you succeed and get what you want in life. And how do you become the best version of yourself? You grow your confidence. And how do you do that? You challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone all the time. Thus, be willing to go beyond your comfort zone. It will build your confidence and make you better at what you are trying to accomplish. 4. You become optimistic and open to new ideas and opportunities People who always challenge themselves to go out of their comfort zone are more optimistic than those who don’t. If you have never invested in an online course before and you want to make that investment on you, you may feel scared and think, “What if I don't have what it takes and lose my hard-earned money?” However, for people who have done it before, they have the experience, they understand how things work and they are more optimistic about it. When you always challenge yourself to do something uncomfortable, you will be more willing to try out new things in the future. Hence, it makes you more open to new ideas and opportunities. Someone who has never tried something new will never be open to new ideas and opportunities. The more you do the difficult things, the more open-minded you will become. You become more acceptable to taking risks and doing the uncomfortable. Hence, you become someone optimistic because you have done it for so many times before and you know that fear only appears in your head remember fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. On the other hand, people who never venture out of their comfort zones are usually more pessimistic about things. Even when they are presented with a good offer, chances are, they will be skeptical or too doubtful to accept. This is because they rarely take the chances. And because they seldom go for an opportunity that presented right in front of them, they become less open to other opportunities around them. So, challenge yourself, do something new, and be willing to do the uncomfortable because that’s what will make all the difference. 5. You’re able to achieve greater success Yes, you can only discover new oceans if you are willing to lose sight of the shore. If you don’t do what is uncomfortable, you will become like everyone else, doing the comfortable and living in mediocrity. T he more you are willing to fail, the more you are willing to experience, and the more you are willing to venture beyond your comfort zone, the more success you can achieve. As what Tony Robbins said: “Success in life is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is usually the result of experience. Experience is usually the result of bad judgment.” Most people look at failure as something bad. But it really is not. Failure is just lessons and experience. It is feedback telling you what went wrong and what you need to improve to get the right results. Never be afraid of making mistakes and failures because they build your character. The more you fail, the more you learn. And the more you learn, the better you can be. The only thing is that you must not quit. As long as you continue to improve and be persistent with your effort, success will eventually be yours. Staying within your comfort zone will never help you gain new experience and learn new lessons. If you want to achieve something you never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done. Success will come to you when you are willing to do the uncomfortable and difficult that most people shun away from. So let's live with passion and purpose that nothing will be able able to impede. Let's fight for what we truly and deeply desire. Strong emotions will come and go but the determination to never quit no matter what, depends on you and your willingness to proceed, get out of the comfort zone and do that which you know must be done. I am excited for you and believe in you taking the necessary steps of faith to venture into new territory. I am here cheering for you!

Let's begin by defining what diet means according to the Webster's dictionary. Diet is a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons. I don't know about you but just hearing the word restricts makes me want to avoid using it when I am referring to eating right. I understand if you have certain food restrictions due to illness or allergies and even then you can enjoy foods that are not only delicious but nourishing. Unfortunately the word diet is being used to promote multimillion dollar businesses and we have bought into the idea that in order to lose the weight or look certain way we "must" follow certain trendy diet. I tried all kinds of diets; the low carb/high fat, the high protein/low fat, the only vegetables/protein, the shakes/bars, the no animal flesh and the no this and no that etc. etc. I think you got the point. For years I jumped from diet to diet hoping I would land on the right one. Until one day when I thought no one was watching and I was redressing my self (after weighting my self naked for the second or third time during the day) my daughter looked at me curiously and asked "why are you always doing that?" I did not know what to say I was confronted with a question I was afraid to answer to myself. After that soul impacting moment I took some time to release all the emotions in paper and in tears. I did a reasonable amount of introspection work and was courageous enough to admit all that I was doing wrong. The lack of being a good example to my young daughters, was what hit me the most. From then on I decided I was going to ignore every thing I thought I knew about dieting/healthy eating and instead I was going to nourish my body with everything that needed including the fat and all. I continued studying and applying the knowledge but this time I was doing it from a loving and caring heart towards myself. I went down to my Guatemalan roots and the nourishment/nutrition I had as a growing child. I remembered my beloved grandmother who was wise, fit and healthy never counting calories or depriving me or herself of any foods instead she would often say "eat it, it is good for you, you need it". I had three meals and two snacks every single day- and at the exact time every day! Every plate she served me was adorned with color from vegetables or fruits, some sort of protein (animal flesh or legumes) corn tortillas or bread and fat -usually avocado, Guatemala grows the biggest ones! And what does healthy eating mean? As a personal trainer and health coach I work with people from different food preferences and one thing most of them have in common is the way they look at eating healthy. They would describe it as boring, tasteless and depriving oneself; something that is done temporarily. And I can totally relate. Eating healthy may mean one thing to the person that is trying to avoid animal flesh than to the bodybuilder who is adding the extra portion of lean chicken breast to his/her meal. One person may not enjoy eating fruits or vegetables but loves legumes, nuts and seeds that contain many of the essential minerals he/she needs to nourish his/her body. In the other hand, another person has no problem eating vegetables and complex carbs but does not enjoy animal foods or legumes and finds it difficult to keep his protein intake high. Are they eating healthy? Yes they are! They are both eating healthy foods. The point here is that we are going to have food preferences and will gravitate to have more of one food than the other. I'd tell my daughters when they were younger "it is not about keeping the taste palate happy all the time, it is also about giving your body what it needs". And I must add now, in the right amounts in order to leave room for the other foods that contain the other essential nutrients. Next time when you are tempted to think of someone as the "eating healthy" person because he/she is eating a bunch of kale, stop yourself and remember that our body needs a lot more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than a certain food can have. How about nourishment? Let's see what the dictionary says about it. Nourishment: the food or other substances necessary for growth, health and good condition. Provides what is needed for someone to be healthy, developed and strong. That is exactly what I would want for you my awesome people! no deprivation, confusion or limitations. I embraced this mind set and my life changed. I no longer struggle with food, I love food and eat everything that nourishes my body. Do I eat the cake once in a while? of course I do! Do I get the extra slice of cake? Probably not. But I have learned to enjoy all foods because I know they help me get and stay healthy and strong in a daily basis. I am all about teaching people what foods their bodies need and their portions and number of calories according to their current weight in order to lose weight, gain weight or maintain. If you are interested in losing weight, gaining lean muscle mass or maintaining check out my programs. I have worked and developed these courses to help you look and feel great where ever you find yourself at this present moment and the goal at hand. Know that I love you and genuinely care for you. I look at each and everyone of you as a family perhaps a brother or a sister dealing with the things I once dealt with for years and now has the opportunity to create a new life starting with self care, self nourishment.