Behavior: Trusting Your Gut and Taking A Leap of Faith

Sometimes those leaps of faith are less leaps and more following your true path. Most people — especially women — ignore their instincts and do what they’ve been told to do or do what they need to please people. Most of these people are not even aware that they’re doing this — but they are.

There is no wrong move in following your gut instinct, because it’s your most pure resource. Even if it takes you down a path that appears to be wrong, the truth is that it is a path you need to follow in order to learn more deeply who you are, what you want, and what you should be doing.

Fear of failure or fear of success are often obstacles to following your gut instinct and succeeding in life.

The reasons people stay static — or in their comfort zone — is either because of inertia or fear of moving. If someone is just inert, they have no motivation or reason to get out of their comfort zone, and likely won’t. However, if someone stays in their comfort zone because they are afraid of failure, success or change, they have an interesting journey in front of them.

Most people change because of discomfort. Either discomfort is forced on them — like in the case where someone is dumped by a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend. They feel so badly that they decide to do things differently to get out of the bad feeling. The other way they experience discomfort is by seeing something they want — whether it’s a slimmer body, a cool car, a loving relationship or a great looking man or woman — and they want it, too. The feeling of desire or wanting, is actually very hard to stay “in”. It is a state most people want to get out of. They want that great looking woman or man for their own. They want the cool car for their own, etc.

Both of these situations are great starting points for getting out of the comfort zone and moving on to something better.

The way to get into these situations that will start you moving out of your comfort zone is first, to get out of the house, period! People who are inert and don’t change at all, are usually homebodies at the least and agoraphobics at worst. Getting out in the world is the first step away from inertia.

The next step is to recognize your fears. This is harder than it may sound. Many times our fears are shrouded by denial or hidden beneath things we think are our fears, but are just lightning rods for distracting us from what our true fears are.

After recognizing fear, confronting it is the next step to change. Often, we romanticize or dramatize our fears. Seeing our fears for what they truly are and not what we imagine them to be allows us to confront them and own them.

Becoming familiar with our fear makes it less of a threat and either by acute discovery or gradually over time, the fear will disappear, and we find ourselves out of our comfort zone and in growth — or new territory.