6 Journal Prompts to Make Leaving Your Comfort Zone Easier Than Ever

We all have trauma and baggage that play a role in who we become. But during your journey of self-love and self-awareness, you have to build the courage to let that go in order to reach your desired outcome. 

When you allow your past to interfere in your current and future life, you are putting yourself in a situation where you’re constantly making decisions based on a fear of leaving your comfort zone.

And in doing that, you aren’t giving yourself a real shot at growing beyond the life you’ve always known.

You’re literally keeping yourself small, shrinking your greatness, and preventing yourself from experiencing the freedom and happiness you can have after leaving your comfort zone. 

When you allow your inner resistance and discomfort to stop you from moving forward every time a situation reminds you of your baggage, you are committing to smallness. You’re making the walls around your comfort zone stronger.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that for myself. I don’t want to live in my comfort zone. I want to burn it down and travel to unknown places, creating new memories and experiences. 

If you want to join me, keep reading. I included six journal prompts in this article that will help you leave your comfort zone and live an active fulfilling life.

Leaving Your Comfort Zone is the Key to Happiness

Imagine a box where each line represents a fear or insecurity that stemmed from a bad experience from your past. All of the experience pile up together making each line thicker and stronger.

Now, imagine that those lines are walls and that each wall has a door to the outside world attached to it.

You are in a four-walled room with four doors. Every fear and insecurity that you hide behind strengthens the walls, strengthening them and making them more difficult to break through.

As the walls strengthen, you are weakened. You don’t have access to sunlight or fresh air in that small room and there’s hardly any space to move. 

And the doors, well, they’re unlocked. You can walk through them, but the negative experiences and thoughts that line the walls make you feel that you are unworthy and incapable.

So, instead of leaving, which can save your life and give you freedom and adventure, you stay where you are. This room is your comfort zone.

Most of us would be too afraid to even look directly at the walls because we don't want to be reminded of all the negativity and hurt we've experienced. 

So, we remain stuck sitting in the middle of the room afraid and lonely as if we don’t have a choice.

You always have a choice.

You can walk through any of those doors and experience happiness, love, passion adventure, and your dreams coming into fruition.

You just have to be willing to face the negative energy that you’ve grown accustomed to and then walk away from it.

Before you can be happy, you have to be uncomfortable. This is how leaving your comfort zone really feels.

Now, what does leaving your comfort zone entail?

• You have to speak to yourself using loving uplifting language that you’ve never used.
• You have to decide that you’re allowed to expand, grow, and take risks.
• You have to forgive yourself and others. 
• You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to leave that tiny stuffy room and refuse to ever return to it.
• You have to be willing to forget everything about that room.
• You have to break down those walls and the old version of yourself in order to rebuild.

You can do this!

Why Do People Choose to be Unhappy Within Their Comfort Zones?

If you do what I say, you will lose a lot. Leaving your comfort zone will cause your life will look completely unfamiliar.

Your relationships, habits, thoughts, needs, and wants will all change as well.

Sometimes you’ll feel so weird and confused you’ll think you’re going crazy. You will even be tempted to go back to that little room. 

You might even think of ways to make that little room even more secure. Maybe you'll figure out how to lock the doors or build walls over them.

Yea, these thoughts are normal. Change can feel overwhelming, even when it's positive.

This is why a lot of people choose to stay stuck and unhappy. These kinds of changes are frightening. 

I agree that breaking yourself down to rebuild is a scary thing to think about. You'll take the first steps if you're fed up with keeping yourself small though.

It really is just as simple as acknowledging that you want more. Also, your fear of failing doesn't hold any weight in the world you will know after leaving your comfort zone. 

Because once you've really started doing this work, you're not going to go back to the way you were. Even if you have some bad habits or negative thoughts that linger longer than others, you will never go back to square one.

Leaving your comfort zone is permanent. You will keep moving forward, breaking through all of the limitations that come up. 

Honestly, you're not gonna have a choice because the person you were at square one won't exist anymore.

Journal Prompts to Help You Challenge Your Comfort Zone

Journaling is hands down one of the best things you can do when you’re working toward self-development in any format. But it’s especially special when you’re focused on leaving your comfort zone behind.

When you journal, you build a level of self-awareness and focus that you can’t get in too many other places. It’s like self-therapy. The key, however, is that you have to be raw, honest, and vulnerable.

You have to be willing go to deep and explore the thoughts and feelings that scare you the most. You have to view your journal as a safe place where you can openly express yourself in ways you never have before.

Doing so will help you to learn yourself and become aware of the unconscious thoughts and beliefs that have made you a slave to your comfort zone. It will also give you a place to explore those thoughts and beliefs and let them go.

Use the journal prompts below to help guide you and get you started. Consider it the first step in leaving your comfort zone for good. 

1. When I think about trying something new or working toward a goal, what thoughts and feelings stop me from moving forward?
2.  How do I feel when these thoughts and feelings come up?
3.  What can I say or do to invalidate the thoughts and feelings that keep me stuck? [Think about the ways you'd encourage someone you love who who is struggling with fear, self-doubt, and and negative self-talk] 
4. What can happen if I choose to believe in my ability to expand, grow, try new things, and accomplish my biggest goals?
5. What/who inspires me to be strong? What lessons can I pull from that source to use for myself?
6. What else can I do to empower myself? [Get creative!]

When you answer these journal prompts and do your journal in general, make an effort to write by hand instead of typing. 

Writing by hand is extremely beneficial. Like meditation, it can help you to be more present and mindful, think more positively, feel and release your emotions, and improve cognitive function.

I designed a wide variety of fun, colorful journals with inspirational messages for my journal store. This is the one I'm currently writing in and you can view the full selection here.

To close out, I’m going to leave you with an inspirational quote written by me from my own journal when I found myself struggling recently. 

“I’m learning to let go and be happy. It’s okay if I stumble. I just need to get back up afterward, dust myself off, and try again. I will get this right. I promise.” 

Now, it’s your turn. Promise yourself that you will make leaving your comfort zone and choosing happiness a priority. You can have whatever you want in this world. You just have to be willing to break your walls down for it.

I wish you well!