Hey, it’s Bob Negen. In this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore this idea of you’re better than your comfort zone.

So let’s think about this.

You’re doing big things. That’s I mean, let’s just recognize it. Don’t ever, you know, talk yourself down. Being a retailer, being an entrepreneur, is a big deal.

You had to get way outside of your comfort zone to open your store. Think about it. Think about signing that lease. It was a little scary or that moment talking to a friend where you finally went, I’m gonna go for it.

That’s a big leap outside your comfort zone. You’re doing big things. Recognize that. But what you want to do is want to do that big thing, and you wanna do it better.

You want to be a better business person. You wanna be a better leader. You wanna be a better member of your community. You wanna, you know, you want to grow.

Growth is the nature of progress.

And so in order for you to build the kind of business that you deserve, in order for you to build the kind of life, that you deserve given the risks that you’ve taken, you have to keep thinking about getting outside of your comfort zone, growing your comfort zone. You are better than your comfort zone.

So let me share a technique with you, a technique that I learned from the motivational speaker Tony Robbins on Everybody knows who Tony Robbins is. I assume you know Tony Robbins is well. I mean, several decades ago, off of a late night infomercial, I ordered Tony Robbins’s personal power program, and it came on cassettes and every day for thirty days, I listened to the cassette, and I did the exercise. And guess what? I learned so much. I grew so much. It was really sort of the beginning of my journey of personal development.

But one of the exercises or one of the the teachings he had in that program was an illustration of how to grow your comfort zone, how to grow. And so here it is.

So let’s just say this circle represents your comfort zone.

Now every time you are tempted or challenged to go outside of your comfort zone. There is also a force that’s resisting. Right? The status quo, a comfort zone.

Everybody likes to be comfortable. I like to be comfortable. I like to go home and put on my sweats and sit on the couch. Everybody likes to be comfortable, but growth doesn’t come in your comfort zone.

Growth can’t come from your comfort zone. So what you have to do is the most effective way to grow and to get out of your comfort zone is not to do big things, not to do audacious things. It’s to build your comfort zone a little bit at a time. So if the circle represents a your comfort zone, the x represents getting outside of your comfort zone.

And every time you step outside of your comfort zone, Your comfort zone gets a little bigger.

And every time your comfort zone gets a little bigger, every time you’ve displayed the courage, to step outside of your comfort zone and try something. Make a choice to try something that you aren’t comfortable with you gain confidence. Curage always leads to confidence.

And when you become more confident, well, guess what?

You’re able to step outside your comfort zone again, and your comfort zone gets a little bigger again. Right? We’re not talking about going and climbing Mount Everest. We’re talking about a little bit at a time. And every time you do that, your comfort zone grows and grows and grows until you don’t even recognize that first comfort zone. You don’t even recognize you have become a whole new person.

And that’s what I want to suggest to you. You know, we talked earlier last week about this idea of you make choices and that twenty twenty four can be the year of choices. That’s your word of the year. You know? And, choice is to whenever you feel afraid or whenever you feel stress around making a choice outside of your comfort zone. Remember this lesson from Tony Robbins.

You don’t have to get way outside your comfort zone, but every time, you get outside of your comfort zone, your comfort zone grows. This is the nature of growth. And I wanna look at you and tell you and say to you, you deserve the very, very best business you can have. And when you build a great business, when you grow because of your business, those lessons and the confidence that you gain from getting outside of your comfort zone, from displaying that courage, it will bleed out into every area of your life. It will make you a better person. You will build a better life.

So my challenge to you, my my hope for you. Is that you see this visual, and you think about that visual. So every time you feel anxious, every time you feel a little afraid, just recognize that if you take the step you display the confidence. You’ve stretched that that comfort zone just a little bit.

You’re gonna be a better person. And when you are a better person, you’re going to get better results. It’s the nature of growth. So I hope that you found that helpful on Bob Negen.

We’ll see you next week.