Moving out of your comfort zone
[Applause]
[Music]
hey
[Music]
hey
the first tedx talk i listened to was
back in 2016.
i was a freshman at university um
sitting in an english class
i don’t remember the exact content of
that talk unfortunately
it was quite a while ago but what i do
remember
is how that talk and the other tedx
talks i’ve listened to since then
made me feel there was something about
these talks that
really connected with me i like how they
included stories of other people and how
those stories contained
important messages and ideas that were
worth spreading
i like how those stories made me feel so
inspired and
hopeful for someone with a pretty short
attention span i mean i have to scroll
through instagram every 10 minutes just
to get through a lecture
which i’m not proud of and i’m working
on but i could listen to an
entire tedx talk without being
distracted
i just was so captivated by the speakers
and it was at that point i knew that i
was falling in love with the ted
community
i also happen to have this crazy thought
of how it would feel like
if i could stand on a tedx platform one
day and deliver my ideas to an audience
hopefully inspiring them just like the
way i thought
i felt i thought it was a pretty
far-fetched idea though because well
for starters i’m dead scared of public
speaking
but anyway what i want to talk about
with you today
is why am i here on a platform
of doing something i’m so afraid of when
i could easily be at home on a couch
eating donuts which is my ultimate
comfort zone
why am i trying so hard to push myself
out of my comfort zone and
into this territory that i like but that
i’m also uncomfortable with
we like our comfort zones because they
make us feel comfortable
safe and you know they’re easy we know
our way around so there’s really nothing
much to be afraid of
but the thing with comfort zones is that
they tend to confine you to this small
space
out of which you don’t want to leave you
don’t want to test yourself you don’t
want to challenge yourself
you want to put yourself out there into
a new environment that you have no idea
how it’ll turn out but you know you want
to do it but
you’re just afraid and it’s very hard to
grow as a person
when you are confined to such a
comfortable space
well if moving out of your comfort zone
is really so good for your personal
development
then why are we reluctant to do it
and that is because we are afraid
moving out of your comfort zone can be
scary i mean imagine yourself
you know wanting to do that first small
business taking a small business
initiative or
maybe trying out a new sport or even a
new skill like public speaking
they’re scary it’s it’s a new
environment and it’s likely that you
could
feel uncomfortable but i’m here to tell
you
that even with that fear the discomfort
and
you know the dread pushing yourself out
there
out of your comfort zone and doing
something you love even if you’re so
afraid of it it’s probably one of the
best things you can do to yourself
in fact looking back at yourself having
moved out of your comfort zone
might make you feel so grateful for the
rest of your life
so today i want to share with you three
tips
that i hope will help you move out of
your comfort zone
and discover new things about yourself
and grow
so around the time when i had discovered
that i really liked the ted community
i also met with this new opportunity
which was so timely and perfect
there i was sitting on a netball court
scrolling through my email and then i
come across this one email
which was recruiting university students
to be part
of an organizing team for a tedx event
and i was just so happy because i mean i
had just come into terms with how much
i was passionate about this initiative
and
i mean i was so happy and i had to apply
to be part of this right
but my inner voice just started ranting
about how this
opportunity was just so out of my
comfort zone
which it was because i had never been
par
organized an event of such a large scale
and i did not know how these tedx events
worked
so i was filled with fear and doubt
i wanted to make the move but it was
just too big of a move
out of my comfort zone but luckily for
me that day
i happen to be a little bit bolder than
the fears that were holding me back
maybe it was the dopamine rush after a
netball game i don’t know
but i actually ended up applying so that
brings me
to tip one of moving out of your comfort
zone
make a move make a move even a tiny
little move that would help you
get closer to what you want to do and it
has to be you who takes that initiative
and no one else can do that for you
and yeah it is scary it is probably the
scariest part of it all
making that first move but when you are
afraid
tell yourself to be bolder than that
fear holding you back
and then just go ahead and make that
move so
fast forward um three months after i
applied i got to know i was
in the organizing team and my experience
with this tedx event was just so
wholesome
i met some amazing people who are some
of my closest friends now
and i learned so much and of course i
got to listen to some amazing speakers
and their stories which i loved so much
there were also these challenges which
at the time
i didn’t think i could do some of them
but with the help of my teammates and my
some effort on my end i was actually
able to do it
and i i surprised myself i i had grown
so much and
just discovered new things about myself
which i
wouldn’t have done if i hadn’t taken
this opportunity
and i wouldn’t have done that in the
first place if i hadn’t make made that
first move so convince yourself to be
brave and make
that first move
i always keep thinking about why we are
free to move out of our comfort zone
what is
holding us back what is the basis of
that fear and i think that
that is a fear of failure we are afraid
more out of our comfort zone because
we are afraid to fail and there’s just
so much negative connotation with
failure you know we think of it as an
embarrassment i mean when was the last
time
you spoke openly of your failures over
your successes
as much as it’s important to learn what
to do you also need to learn what not
to do and that is exactly what failure
can teach you
so i play netball and when i was um
a freshman i wanted to join the
university and netball team so i applied
for the tryouts and then on the day of
the tryouts
i realized that i was so nervous i was
really so
way more nervous than how i you i am
before games
and my nerves got to me so much that day
that i couldn’t even perform
you know to the level i wanted to so my
job
in a netball team is a shooter i am
responsible for making
goals i put the ball through the hoop
but on this day
i couldn’t even make a single goal my
nerves had really affected me so much
and i was really disappointed in myself
but
even though i felt upset my
epic failure that day taught me
something
it taught me what not to do it taught me
that i could not
let my nerves get to me so much i had to
manage it
so the next year when i tried out again
because obviously i didn’t make it to
the team the last time
i told myself okay you’re gonna manage
your nerves so what i did was 30 minutes
before the game
i sat on a bench and then i listened to
music
but not just any music bollywood music
so i have this way with bollywood music
you could be speaking to me while i
listen to bollywood songs but i
would not be listening to you i would be
picturing myself dancing
so it was a great distraction and i felt
calm just
calm enough to perform and i personally
think i did a pretty good job during
those tryouts
and i did make it to the team afterwards
but i was just so
most importantly i was just glad i had
viewed my
failure as a learning tool and not as an
embarrassment
so my tip too to you would be to
change your mindset about looking at
failure as an
embarrassment but rather look at what
you can learn from it
don’t be afraid of your failure the
moment you stop being afraid of your
failures
you’re gonna it’s gonna be easy for you
to move out of your comfort zone because
you don’t have nothing to lose you’re
not afraid to fail
so embrace your failures and see what
they
it can teach you
getting out of your comfort zone is
really not i think it’s not something
you can do overnight
it’s important to take small steps
towards it for example if
you want to be a pop singer you know at
a concert for a large audience
your small steps could be taking up
smaller gigs
at open mic nights or school talent
shows to smaller audiences
so tip three of moving out of your
comfort zone would be to break
your main goal into smaller chunks and
approach it in a
small step step-by-step manner and by
doing that
you can essentially make your journey
out of your comfort zone
a little less overwhelming because if
you were to dive head first into that
main big goal it can be so overwhelming
that you might give up easily
i confessed earlier about how i am so
afraid of public speaking
but luckily for me before coming here
today i was also able to take up a few
small scale speaking challenges so at
school and university i could speak
i could do some poster presentations and
powerpoint presentations to smaller
crowds
and i think that made this experience a
little less overwhelming
to me uh but nevertheless i have not
done something like this before to and
such an event so i think i’m definitely
going to treat myself to those donuts i
mentioned before when i go back home
so if i had one goal today it would be
to leave
my audience inspired
to give you one take-home message
don’t ever ever let fear get in the way
of doing something you love because it
could become
something so so great and meaningful to
you
getting out of your comfort zone is it
scary it’s so scary but once you do it
you’re gonna feel so good and so proud
of yourself
you can also you use moving out of your
comfort zone
as a way to learn new things about
yourself and maybe become more confident
and
be appreciative of who you are
remember the biggest pity is not
fail at trying something new but the
biggest pity is to not even
give yourself the chance to try
something new in the first place
moving out of your comfort zone can help
you become a better version of yourself
so would you want to stand in the way of
something as great as that
thank you