When was the last time you were put into a situation or knew you were going into a situation that was or would be completely outside your comfort zone? These situations come up all the time and we usually try to avoid them at all costs when in fact we should be doing the the exact opposite. But why?

By participating in activities that scare us the following things tend to occur:

• We grow stronger mentally
• We build relationships
• We realize that the worst case scenario that we visualize in our mind rarely occurs.

In my experience these are some of the biggest outcomes of doing things that scare you or make you uncomfortable. And what I’ve found is that once you put yourself in these situations you soon forget about why you were scared of it in the first place and you begin to have fun. At that point you my friend, have grown!

One morning a group of us decided we should go on a little road trip to a business summit that was about four hours away. The plan was to pile into the same car and head out of town at 5:30 in the morning  so that we could get there before the summit began. Shouldn’t be that big of a deal right? Well here’s the thing, being in a car, bus or plane ramps up my anxiety for reasons unknown. I want to figure out a way to not only deal with this  issue, but to also fix the problem so that I can move on and enjoy the ride.

I love experimenting and trying new things, always have. So I figured I would use this to my advantage and just treat this like a little experiment and see what happens. Here is one of the biggest things I learned:

Change Your Mindset

This is huge. Your mind is a powerful thing and we have to learn how to use our thoughts to our advantage. What we think about is what we become and we can either become great or we can make ourselves miserable simply by what we think about and what we tell ourselves. Overthinking is the killer of dreams and often leads us to miss opportunities for personal growth because the thought of the worst case scenario often overwhelms and consumes us. I know this from personal experience and am a classic example of overthinking and tend to over analyze even the simplest of questions. But I can almost guarantee that whatever worst case scenario is running through your mind in any given situation will never happen.

I want you to try a little experiment yourself. This is actually a thought process that I learned while I was at the business summit that I mentioned earlier and is a great way to change your mindset for almost any situation.

1. Think about the worst case scenario. For any given situation, especially those outside our comfort zone we tend to think about the worst thing that can happen which is often irrational. Write it down.
2. Next think about how likely it is that this situation or scenario will occur and write it down. As a matter of fact make yourself a scale ranging from 1 to 10 with 1 being not likely at all (0%) and a 10 being a will absolutely happen without a doubt (100%) type of situation.
3. How would you recover from this situation if the worst case actually did happen? Really think about it. If whatever you’re thinking actually occurred what would that recovery look like and how long would it take you to rebound to where you are now?
4. What would this situation cost you? This could be a financial cost. It could be a mental cost or even a cost to your reputation. Think about it, would it really cost that much?
5. Now think about the best possible outcome. How would you feel if you went through with your plan or your goal and came out unscathed. Is it worth it? Would it make you grow as a person. Would it improve your business? How about your relationships?
6. Here’s the best part. Take action and do it now.

Take action, do what scares you

By slowing down and taking a minute to rationally think about any situation that you are in or may soon be in you can quickly realize that most worst case scenarios are not that bad. By following the process above you will learn that the best possible outcome is far better and more likely to happen than the worst. Always remember, mindset is everything.