Get Uncomfortable w/ Sunil Chillar

Guide 2 the Grind

Nowadays the term “comfort zone” seems like a cliche. Every wannabe youtube motivational speaker over uses the term, and most people have no real concept of how their comfort zone actually works. It’s not enough to tell someone they “have to get out of their comfort zone”, they need to actually understand what it is, why it exists, and how it functions.

What it is is fairly simple… on the surface.

It’s a psychological barrier of perception that’s been set up by your mind.

I remember the first time I realized that my mind had created an artificial barrier for me. I was at a leadership summit with a bunch of business colleagues, and some of us went to a high ropes course.

I wasn’t afraid of heights at all, so that never factored into my decision to go. In fact, just a few years earlier I’d gone skydiving, and absolutely loved it.

But something funny happened once I got up on the ropes.

Fear

The kind of fear that paralyzes you, and keeps you from taking the next step. You know the kind where your palms start getting clammy, and you start to sweat just standing there?

Long story short, I overcame the fear with logic. I was wearing a harness, and I mean it was in a tourist attraction in Orlando, the worst that could happen was I’d fall ten feet onto some kids playing arcade games. It’d suck more for them than me.

But the experience put me on a path to understanding where this irrational fear had come from, and how it crept in so slowly that I hadn’t noticed it until I came up against that barrier… hard.

So why does it exist?

The comfort zone is one of the oldest survival instincts we’re born with. It’s written in our genetic code. Originally the comfort zone kept us from leaving the comfort of the cave at night, and venturing out into the darkness where big scary beasts could eat us.

That doesn’t happen a whole lot these days.

So how does this fear creep in and take up mental real estate?

From the age of about 18 - 28 our lives get set up as we enter into “the Real World”. Once we’re out of school, most people stop expanding their minds. Days seem to be pretty routine, and we don’t venture much outside of our normal schedules. This becomes our cave, and new experiences become the thing that might eat us if we step outside the cave.

It’s pretty messed up if you think about it, but it’s an evolutionary leftover.

The good news is, we don’t have to live by this fear.

Running up against the edge of your fear/comfort zone on a regular basis is the only way to push that fear barrier back. It’s like working out a muscle. The more you do it, the easier it is.

One person who exemplifies this way of living is Sunil Chillar. Sunil worked his way up from being a factory worker, to starting his own investment fund. By pushing the edge of his comfort zone on a regular basis, he’s able to achieve massive success, not only for himself, but also the team members who work with him.

Learn all about his journey and how he overcame his barriers on this episode of the “Guide 2 the Grind” podcast.

Check it out here.

www.guidetothegrind.com