369 Holly Worton ~ Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone With Outdoor Adventures

Transcript

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Into the Woods podcast, episode 369. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode. Today I am going to talk about stepping outside of your comfort zone through outdoor adventures.

Now this is something that is obviously very close to my heart, it is a topic that is of great interest to me, and it is something I have been taking about a lot lately both on the blog and on the podcast. I have been blogging lately about the advantages of solo hiking and the advantages of travelling alone and those are two ways, that I will be talking about later, you can step outside of your comfort zone. On the podcast last week’s episode, 368 with Yvette Webster, we talked about how to take your hiking to the next level and really up your game with hiking. Episode 367, I talked about finding yourself through solo travel and outdoor adventures.

So this is something that is very important to me and it is something that I have always enjoyed. When I used to run my walking group for women in my area which I really enjoyed and I really miss — and I am starting to try and think of ways that I might be able to add that into my life, I am trying not to add more things to my schedule but I really miss guiding walking groups so maybe the time is coming for new walking adventures. But when I used to run that group, it was a meet-up group, I used to get a lot of women contacting me and saying: why are your walks so long? Because they were all at least nine or ten miles, usually between nine and I think the longest one was 13. So they were considerable walks, mostly because I don’t enjoy a shorter walk I really like to get into it and get out there for a good ten-mile-hike.

But I used to get messages from women saying: I am not used to hiking ten miles, the longest I have ever done is five miles, I don’t know what to do, I want to go. I would always encourage them to come with us because it was a slow walking group, I tried to keep the pace fairly slow. I tried to create rest stops for people, I tried to make it easy for people who weren’t used to walking as much as I was to get out there and join us. And people were always really pleasantly surprised about how easy it was for them to stretch from five miles to ten miles, so I really, really, enjoy encouraging others to get out of their comfort zone with their outdoor adventures and do new things. So let’s get into this episode.

What is your comfort zone?

Let’s start by talking about that. So your comfort zone is a situation where you feel safe, where you feel at ease, your comfort zone is not necessarily a bad thing, it is really nice to feel safe and at ease in your life – you don’t want to be constantly stressed or panicked. However, when you want to create change in your life, you may need to step outside of your comfort zone.

So another very interesting definition of comfort zone, that I found online, was “a settled method of working that requires little effort and yields only barely acceptable results”. That is pretty harsh, but if you think about that applied to your life, think of it is as a settled method of living, or a settled lifestyle that requires little effort because you have been doing it for a while and it gives you the same results you have been getting. So again, if you want to change your situation and grow and have new experiences you are probably going to have to step outside of your comfort zone. Setting goals and working to achieve goals usually involves stepping outside of your comfort zone.

I think it is important to acknowledge that when you step outside of your comfort zone there are a couple of different zones outside of your comfort zone. There is the stretch zone which is just a step or two outside of your comfort zone, it is something that maybe feels a little uncomfortable, it feels challenging, but it is do-able. Then there are things, the area beyond your stretch-zone is the panic zone, so there are things that you could do that could really stretch you beyond that stretch zone and make you panic.

So, maybe if you are used to day hiking in your local area on trails that you know in a lowland area, then maybe travelling abroad to the Himalayas and trying to do a solo hike on your own in the mountains, that might lead to stepping into your panic zone. There are ways you can stretch yourself to get from here or there if hiking in the Himalayas is your goal, or climbing Kilimanjaro or any of those things which are a big challenge if you are used to hiking in lowland areas.

So be aware that when you get outside of your comfort zone that you step into the stretch zone and don’t leap straight into the panic zone. You can get to things, and I think this is another important thing, your stretch zone you can stretch little-by-little, and as you stretch it in one area of your life it will stretch the comfort zone in other areas of your life. So what today may be in your panic zone, a week, a month, a year from now may be in your stretch zone because you stretched your comfort zone to what was previously in your panic zone is now in your stretch zone. Hope that made sense, that felt kind of rambling, but the point is you can grow it. What is in your panic zone today may not be in the future and hopefully won’t because hopefully you will be stretching your comfort zone little-by-little.

Why would you want to get out of your comfort zone?

Because you want to create desired change in your life, maybe you have set some goals, you want to achieve those goals, and taking the actions that you want to take to achieve those goals involves stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Now, for many, many, years, I talked about PSYCH-K and how I used PSYCH-K to help me take the actions I needed to take to achieve my goals. And that is a great tool, I will link to that in the show notes so that you can check it out, it is basically a tool which helps you to reprogram your subconscious mind and that can help make it easier for you to achieve your goals and take actions that are outside your comfort zone. But at the end of the day you need to take those actions.

I had a couple of clients, one client in particular I can think of that I worked with for a brief time, who wanted to create this desired change in his life, he had this one goal that he wanted to achieve and he just wasn’t taking the action. We were doing the PSYCH-K, we were doing the work, and he still wasn’t taking the action. That was why I later made it so clear to my clients that not only do you need to do the work to change your mindset, but you also need to take the practical action, it is not going to happen by magic, you need to do something. So changing your mindset is really good, and very important, but you still need to take that action. The thing is that doing the mindset work will make it easier for you to take that action, it will make it less challenging and it will make it less scary.

Why else would you want to get out of your comfort zone?

You might want to improve your life by achieving your goals or creating desired change. You might want to change your job, you might want to change your partner, you might want to move to another area. A lot of those things are really scary and getting outside of your comfort zone will help you to face your fears, because doing things that are outside of your comfort zone feel challenging, they feel scary, and when you face little scary fears it is like you are building your fear muscle and it makes it easier to face bigger fears. It is something that I have seen time and time again.

Why else would you want to get out of your comfort zone?

Personal growth, just general growth, all of these things that I mention, creating change, achieving goals, improving your life, those are all parts of personal growth. So, if you want to grow as an individual it is really useful to set the goal of stepping outside of your comfort zone, encouraging yourself to step outside of your comfort zone, and giving yourself permission to step outside of your comfort zone on a regular basis, because like I said it is like a muscle: the more often you do it, the more often you get used to stepping outside of your comfort zone, the easier it will be.

If you have been stuck living years inside of your comfort zone it is going to be harder to take the first step, that’s okay, just do it, start with something small and keep doing things and it will get easier and easier, this is really, really important. It gets easier.

Feeling stuck

If you are feeling stuck in your life, you are feeling stuck, you don’t know what is wrong, it doesn’t feel right, life feels crappy, that might just be because you have been inside your comfort zone without moving out of it for a long time. Your comfort zone hasn’t changed. And while it maybe used to be comfortable, now it is not so comfortable and it is starting to feel yucky and you are getting that itchy feeling like you are wanting change. If you are feeling that, that is another good reason to step outside of your comfort zone. Again, start small, don’t leap into your panic zone, do something small.

 

Outdoor Adventures

So let’s talk about how you can get out of your comfort zone with outdoor adventures and I think that using outdoor adventures to get out of your comfort zone will help you with other areas of your life. So maybe you are afraid of public speaking, obviously it would be useful to go to something like Toastmasters, or another speaking club, because that will help you to practice in a safe situation. However you might be even too scared to join Toastmasters. By getting out of your comfort zone with outdoor adventures that will help you do the challenging thing that is to go to Toastmaster, for example. I use this example a lot because so many people are afraid of public speaking and for me joining Toastmasters changed my life, absolutely.

So let’s start with something easy. If you are used to going hiking or walking in a group then try going hiking on your own. Like I said I have been blogging a lot, and talking a lot about solo hiking and solo travel, and I think that is a great way to step outside of your comfort zone. Conversely, if you are used to going hiking on your own and you are afraid of going hiking with a group, because perhaps you think the group might be more challenging then you are used to, or you are afraid of hiking with other people, or you are afraid of not keeping up with the pace, or walking too fast, then it might be a good idea for you to go hiking with a group. There are so many hiking and walking groups on Meet-up, and while I know we are still in this COVID situation and you will have to maintain lots of social distancing, I have seen lots of outdoor groups getting outdoors while maintaining social distancing, so it is possible now. So go on http://Meetup.com and find a group. However be mindful that you step into your stretch zone and not your panic zone. So again, if you are used to easy hiking in the lowlands don’t sign up to go with a group and hike up Snowdon, for example, or any other mountain, do something that is a small stretch.

Set your own pace

One of the reasons that I like walking alone and hiking alone so much is that I can set my own pace. I really don’t like, this sounds terrible now that I am talking about stretching out of my comfort zone, but I don’t necessarily like the challenge of going with other people because I do enjoy walking at a slower pace. I like enjoying the scenery, I don’t like just putting my head down and forging up a mountain or up a hill, I like to enjoy the journey. So I am very mindful, when I go hiking or walking with other groups, that they are going to be going at my own pace because that is not something that I personally want to challenge myself with, I want to enjoy the journey, I want to enjoy being outdoors, I don’t want to just push myself to get up a hill. So do what works for you.

Learning a craft outdoors

Next, you could learn something new in the outdoors. I just got back from a 5-day advanced bush craft course that I did at the woodcraft school, I think I mentioned this a few times already I certainly mentioned it on the blog and on social media I think. It was an excellent course. I did stuff that I was not used to doing. I learned stuff that I had never done before, we sawed down trees to harvest the wood, to make potholders, to boil water, to carve a spoon, I don’t even know what else we did we learned so many thing and practical things – there may be a situation when I use them.

Also fire by friction, my nemesis is the bow drill, if you don’t know what that is google it, it is awful, it takes ages to learn, it is the kind of thing that takes ages to learn but once you get it it is easy, I am not at that point yet, I am still at the struggling point. I will link to bow drill in the show notes – it is rough! And it was frustrating but I was totally outside of my comfort zone, but I was totally surprised to see how, even though I was frustrated sometimes, I still kept at it. I didn’t give up and I didn’t use it as an excuse to feel bad about myself which I would have in previous years. It was just like: I am doing this new thing, I am not good at it, it is hard, it is not coming easily to me, I am just going to keep going at it. That was kind of my attitude so that was really positive to see how much I have changed. Whereas before I would have used it as an excuse to think: I am not good enough, I can’t do this, other people can get it, other people have already got it, I can’t do it… I would have used it as an excuse to feel bad about myself and I didn’t, so that was pretty awesome and it was a huge stretch outside of my comfort zone.  

Plant identification

So other things you can learn in the outdoors, you can learn plants; at that same woodcraft school I took a plant identification class last year, which was five days and excellent. I am also doing a wildlife tracking and observation course with them, really, really, good and totally outside of my comfort zone because I am really not good at looking at little footprints in the mud and seeing what it is. So it is good, it is really useful, it is taking me outside of my comfort zone and totally not in my panic zone. I think that is the good thing about learning something new in the outdoors, you are getting guided by the instructor or the teacher and you are in a safe environment to learn something new and it is still taking you outside of your comfort zone. You also might want to learn: basket weaving, mushroom picking, foraging, there are so many things that are safe to learn in the outdoors that you can do that will still take you out of your comfort zone. I really find that learning something new really stretches my comfort zone in terms of mental learning, so this is good stuff.

Longer hikes

You can hike a longer trail or route. So if you are a day hiker, instead of hiking five miles try hiking seven miles, next time try hiking ten miles and extend your day hikes. You can also extend your routes, so when walking long distance trails, the longest I have ever done is my first trail which is South Downs Way which is 100 miles, after that I hiked the Ridgeway which is 87 miles, and I haven’t gone beyond that, I really want to hike a longer trail. I was supposed to do the Camino Portuguese which was going to be about two weeks, and I was super looking forward to that, then Covid struck so I am not going to do that until 2022.

Next year I really want to hike a longer trail probably in Scotland, I want to do the Southern Upland Trail, I really want to do the Cape Wrath trail, those are huge stretches outside of my comfort zone because I am going to be hiking and camping, rather than staying at B&Bs. That is another thing that I wanted to propose, so, for example, when I do my long distance trails in England, I stay at B&Bs. Now some trails have camp sites along them where you can camp, wild camping is not legal in England in most parts, there are some parts where it is, but in Scotland, of course, you can wild camp just about anywhere as long as you are respectful about where you camp and don’t pitch up next to someone’s house, so use common sense. I am used to staying at B&Bs which is nice, it is easy, but I love camping so I really want to do a longer trail where I can camp instead of staying in B&Bs and that is probably going to be how I stretch myself out of my comfort zone next year on my next long distance route.

Next, extend your adventure, so, if you are a day hiker, try a weekend hike. I wrote two books on great weekend trails: the Way South path and the Downs-link, they are both really great trails for people who are new to long distance hiking and hiking and walking, they are super easy trails, they are fairly flat and just a couple of hilly bits, but they are really easy trails. I will link to those in the show notes, but think about how you can extend from a day hike to a two or three day trip, I think that is a really great way of getting into longer trails. Unfortunately I didn’t do that, I went straight for the 100 mile hike! I would have learned a lot and I went spared myself some pain, if I had just done a two or three day hike first. So if you are a day hiker expand to a weekend hike. If you have already done weekend hikes expand to a week-long hike, or jump from a day to a week long hike as I did, it is totally do-able especially if you are in lowland conditions like I was in the South Downs Way. So figure out how you can extend your existing adventures, the things that you really love, maybe you are not a hiker, maybe you are not a walker, maybe you are a cyclist? So go on a longer trail.

Change of Territory

Next, you could go hiking or walking or cycling or whatever your thing is in a new environment, go to a more remote territory. That is one of the things that really appeals to me about hiking in Scotland and particularly the Wrath Trail, is that it is so remote. I really love places that are remote and it is shocking to think that there places on the South Downs Way, there are places on the Way South Path that are in South East England and yet feel so remote, and you can go for hours at a time without seeing other people, especially during the week. But yet I have this urging for something even more remote which is why I think Scotland is on my list for next year.

You could also go hiking in another country, so I have gotten used to walking long distance trails here in England, Scotland is going to be a stretch outside of my comfort zone, but also if I had done the Camino Portugese that goes through Spain and Portugal, that would have been a stretch. Why would have been a stretch? Because it is a totally different country, it is a different experience. I am fluent in Spanish so that makes it easier, if you were not, that would add to the stretch outside your comfort zone. I used to be conversational in Portugese but I have lost most of my Portugese so it would have been a stretch for me to go walking where I don’t speak the language any more – and yes Portugese is very close to Spanish so it wouldn’t have been a stretch into my panic zone but it would be a stretch into my comfort zone. So, go hiking in a different country, or do your thing, whatever it is that you do, in a different country.

Camping

Camping, if you like camping and you are used to care camping and camping in camp grounds, try wild camping. Again, camp where it is legal in your country, Scotland is very easy you have got a lot of freedom, in England not so much but look into what is legal where you are and try wild camping. Also, if you are used to camping with friends in a camp ground, or wild camping with friends, go alone, camp alone in a camp ground, wild camp alone. The first time I camped alone in a camp ground I felt uncomfortable and it was definitely a stretch outside of my comfort zone. I was very close to home, I was at this camp ground that I hiked to from my home {laughing} so it was very familiar territory, I hadn’t been to that place before, but it was still familiar territory and close to home. If I had an emergency my husband could have driven in ten minutes and picked me up so it was a fairly easy stretch but I still felt really uncomfortable alone in my tent.

The first time I wild camped, even though I was with other people, there were three of us in our group, still, I was aware of the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere in the black mountains in Wales. I heard these wild ponies come down to drink in a stream, when I first heard them I thought: someone is in the camp, what is this? Then I started hearing horse-y sounds and realised it was wild ponies. and that made me feel better, but it was a stretch outside of my comfort zone even though I was with other people. So change things up and do things a little bit differently and that will stretch you outside of your comfort zone. Again, don’t stretch yourself into your panic zone, if you are used to camping with groups in a camp ground, don’t travel to some other country and wild camp alone in bear country for the first time. Be reasonable.

Also do things that you are afraid of. So for me, and I think I have mentioned this before, Striding Edge, and I will link to that in the show notes [https://www.stridingedge.net] is this ridge in the UK, in England, that I have always been kind of fascinated by and freaked out by, and it is something I never really wanted to do, it was just something that I looked at [and thought]: yeah I don’t need to do that, until I saw that Mark Reid, the guy I have done a lot of navigation courses with, does a group walk/hike/climb across striding edge. The second I saw that I thought: okay I need to do this. Unfortunately it was all booked for this year, so I couldn’t do it, but I look forward to booking it in next year because I suddenly realised that I wanted to do this as a challenge for myself, because I felt safe doing it with him.

So do something that you are afraid of with someone guiding you, or mentoring you, or helping you, who can support you through this. Just because you are stretching outside of your comfort zone, doesn’t mean that you need to do it on your own. So for me, going across Striding Edge, will be a stretch for me, but it will be into a stretch zone and not panic zone because I will be doing it with someone I trust. Doing it on my own will be straight leap to panic so again be mindful in how you create these challenges for yourself.

Make a list

Finally, create challenges for yourself. Make a list of all the things that I have just talked about, make a list of all the things that might challenge you, that are a stretch from your comfort zone into your stretch zone, that are a stretch or leap into your panic zone. Make a list of all the things that you have wanted to do but that you are too scared to do, in the outdoors or in life.

Make a list of all the changes that you want to make in your life, make a list of all the stuff and then label them: stretch zone or panic zone? And then maybe if you this in a spreadsheet – I am a big spreadsheet person – if you do this in a spreadsheet, you can order them as to which things are in the stretch zone and which things are in the panic zone and then pick one and do it.

I would like to challenge you to take action today by creating that list for yourself of all the things that you want to do, in the outdoors and in your life, all the changes that you want to make, all the things that you want to learn, label them stretch or panic and pick a stretch one and do it and then once you have done it, pick another one. Then I would like to suggest that you make the list and then you block out time in your calendar to do the first thing. Thirdly, get back to me when you have done it. I would love to hear from you. I get emails and facebook messages from people all the time who have read my books, and done some of the things I have suggested, and I love hearing from people. You can email me at: [email protected] or you can find me online and get in touch there. I would really love to hear from you.

And thank you so much for listening, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a quick review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, it would mean the world to me and it would also help get this podcast out there to people who might benefit from it.

Next week’s episode is a guest, I am really enjoying having guests on the show again, I avoided guests for so long but it has been absolutely fantastic. So next week’s episode is all about how outdoor adventures can help you to make better decisions in life, my guest is Brad Borkan, he is an author who wrote the book When Your Life Depends On It, Extreme Decision Making, Lessons From the Antarctic. It is a really, really, juicy book, I have really enjoyed it.

So what are you going to learn from next week’s episode? We talk about how people make decisions, both good decisions and bad decisions. We explore how we can learn to make better decisions in life. We also talk about things we can learn from Antarctic explorers, so even though they were doing their thing over 100 years ago, there is a lot we can learn from how they made decisions. We also talk about why it is so life changing to recognise the teams we have in our lives. I know that may sound weird but we have teams that we may not be aware of and they can really help us to make better decisions in life. Finally we discuss how we can use our own outdoor adventures to make better decisions in life.

So I encourage you to do your list, and to do your first thing that is a stretch outside of your comfort zone! 

Thank you so much for listening and remember to visit: http://HollyWorton.com/369 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you, thank you, thank you.