Comfort zones are – by definition – comfortable places to be. And unless you’re a complete adrenalin junkie, chances are you like to be comfortable.

Actually, even adrenalin junkies are inside their comfort zone when they’re doing those things that scare the living daylights out of the rest of us.

But near enough all of us have a range of things we do and places we go that are comfortable and it’s rare to stray outside those self imposed limits.

Even if we’d actually enjoy the new things once we tried them.

Here are some ideas to help you get out of your comfort zone.

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The things you say to yourself is self talk – whether that’s positive or negative.

It doesn’t matter if the self talk is spoken out loud (although other people might look at you slightly weirdly if you do that within earshot) or “spoken” inside your head. It’s still self talk.

And – if you’re like lots of people – that self talk is more often than not negative.

Turning round that negativity so that your self talk is more often positive is an excellent aim.

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Stress happens – it’s how we deal with it that’s important. We seem to need a bit of stress in our lives, otherwise we wouldn’t get anything done. But too much stress can be bad for us, leading to all sorts of complications.

Whilst you can’t eliminate all stress, there are some ways that can help you to stop being stressed out as much and chill at least a bit more.

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Goals are good to have – they’re one of the things that help us to move forward in life.

But, so often, they fall by the wayside. New Year’s resolutions are an excellent example of that – way too often we have the same list of goals every year and nothing has changed on it except our morale.

So how can you achieve your goals?

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Your inner critic is trying to help but sometimes doesn’t. It’s often there as an almost permanent nagging voice in your head.

You’re not alone – most people have an inner critic that is there, some or all of the time.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to have but often it can be decidedly negative.

Which is why overcoming your inner critic. and getting it to work with you rather than against you, is vital to moving forward in life.

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It’s normal for our minds to buzz and chatter away but it’s also distracting. Whilst it would probably be unnerving if your mind chatter stopped completely (your mind would probably start chattering about whether or not you were still alive) there are times when it’s useful to turn down the volume or the quantity of chatter that’s going through your mind.

So, how can you quieten your mind chatter?

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The future is uncertain – by definition. There are almost no certainties in life – death, taxes, not much else.

We take things as being certain and, for our lifetime, there’s some things that are as close to certain as it’s likely to get. The sun will likely set tonight and rise again tomorrow morning. The timings will be within a handful of milliseconds. But other events are a lot less certain, especially if they involve nature or people.

And almost none of them are in our control. You can’t control whether you wake up tomorrow morning or not. You probably will – and if you don’t, there’s not really any point in worrying about that possibility (even if a life insurance salesman would like you to dwell on it).

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There are times when it seems as though everyone has more confidence than you do. That’s not normally true but it doesn’t stop us believing that notion and then retreating further into our shell. Been there, done that, been afraid to wear the t-shirt.

So, what can you do to become more confident and less shy?

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Our brains have evolved over the years to help us as a species. Whilst we’re not all equal when it comes to brain power there are quite a few things you can do to increase your brain power.

Collectively our concentration and attention spans have dropped in recent years. If you can get them to lift their face away from their phone, ask anyone you know.

Brain power and concentration are linked – often our most serious thinking comes when we’re concentrating hard enough to make our brain ache.

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We often think that meditation takes a long time. And if you’re the kind of person who needs to have everything in precisely the right place – whatever you’re going to meditate on, the “space” you’re in, the ambience of the room, maybe even going to a special location – then maybe it does.

But for those times when you need to meditate but can’t take an hour out of your life, it’s worth picking up some methods that will help you get at least most of the benefits of meditation in as little as 10 minutes a day.

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