I saw a speech recently that was all about getting out of your comfort zone. At the end, we were all given a piece of paper with more than 100+ challenges to try. What was strange for me was that I had done more than half of them.

Having studied extraordinary people for the last few years, and been obsessed with how they think and act, I noticed they all did one thing: they got out of their comfort zone consistently. Getting out of their comfort zone was how they upskilled and crushed the normal fears that we all face.

It’s like being Mario and then getting a gold star – you feel invincible and extremely agile. We haven’t all gone on this journey of breaking out of our comfort zone. The good news is we can start with a 36-day challenge.

Each day, I want you to pick one of the below challenges to try:

1. Lie down on the ground for 30 seconds in a busy place…then get up with a smile and pretend nothing’s happened. This is the one I recommend the most and it was made famous by Tim Ferriss.

2. Slow dance on a rooftop with a friend or lover

3. Ask for 10% off the next coffee or tea you buy. (Don’t tell the waiter it is a challenge).

4. Drive around, crank your favorite songs and have a dance off at stoplights to make strangers laugh

5. Have a difficult conversation face to face instead of via email / text / phone.

6. Call your mother and tell her how much you love her.

7. Send someone flowers for no reason

8. Take a cold shower during winter for 30 seconds (remember to breathe)

9. Pull an all-nighter when the opportunity arises instead of going home.

10. Jump into a lake / river / pool with your clothes on.

11. Dress up in your most classy outfit. Go to a luxury car dealership, pretend to be rich and drive the swankiest car they have.

12. Walk around the city all night and then find a place to eat breakfast at dawn

13. Write a list of the craziest things you could ever do, have or be. Start doing them.

14. Go to a restaurant and convince the cook to create something completely new for you to eat.

15. Wake up early during one winter’s morning when it’s freezing cold and go for a walk.

16. Ask someone on a date who you think is way out of your league.

17. Eat somewhere way out of your budget

18. Attend a costume party and go all out.

19. Unplug from email, social media and your phone for 24 hours. (Try a “No-Tech Sunday”)

20. Go to a karaoke bar and sing like you’re the best singer there is.

21. Make a fool of yourself in public on a dance floor. You can’t consume alcohol beforehand either!

22. Crash a wedding that you’re not invited to.

23. Make a free hugs sign, stand in a high traffic place and dish out some lovin’.

24. Take a homeless person out to lunch and hear their story.

25. Go a whole week without TV.

26. After a week of no TV, donate your TV to charity.

27. Do a silent meditation retreat

28. Do stand up comedy for a night.

29. Try a food you have always disliked.

30. Be vulnerable. Tell someone your biggest fear, regret or desire.

31. Sign up for a public speaking event like TedX and then start preparing.

32. Invite a co-worker you don’t know well to lunch to get to know them better.

33. Dive with sharks

34. Spend a whole day answering the question, “How are you today?” with the response, “Outstanding! How are you?” – It’s more uncomfortable than you think.

35. Go on a fast for two days and drink nothing but water.

36. Pickup your significant other from work or the airport wearing a long jacket with nothing underneath.

What next?

Once you’ve read through the list, I want you to pick the five hardest ones. Then, I want you to do those first. Following those five, I then want you to complete the rest. All up, you should do one per day, therefore taking 36 days to complete all comfort zone challenges. By the end, you’ll have taken your life to the next level.

My experience of comfort zone challenges

Since I began doing regular comfort zone challenges as a habit I’ve achieved the following:

– I’ve dated girls I never thought were in my league
– I’ve become a lot better at dealing with fear
– I’ve started performing really well at public speaking
– I’ve learned new things about myself
– I’ve become more disciplined
– I’ve met loads of strangers and some of them have become friends

“If I had a choice between doing further education and learning to break my comfort zone through these above challenges, I’d choose the later”

Overcoming the stuff that scares you, and that most people would never try, helps you to become mentally tough. Mental toughness will help you overcome this negative world that you experience with your ancient survival brain, and see through your own eyes.

How can you take the whole comfort zone thing even further?

If you get the results that’s all fine and dandy. The way you supersize your experience and go to the next level is by encouraging your friends and family to do the same. As they begin to participate, they’ll push you further at the same time. You’ll then unconsciously be gamifying the challenges and seeing who can be the boldest. It’s kick ass when this happens.

Wrap up time

So I hope these challenges have inspired you. Each one is unique and builds upon a new and slightly different skill. It’s a lot of fun once you’ve done the first few. The key is to detach yourself from the outcome. Whether you succeed or not it doesn’t matter. There is no failure.

The aim of this comfort zone game is just to have a go and see what happens. Give it a shot and have fun! Send me your results via my website below if you feel like sharing your experience. I’d love to know how it goes.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net