As a child, I started traveling with my family in Europe. We were in Italy, France and Spain during the summer holidays. Later, as a teenager, I started backpacking to Asia and eventually made it my job. I became a professional traveler or something like a "challenge seeker".
"What is that?" You may think so. Basically, I took on adventurous challenges and left my comfort zone, filmed these cross-border trips and published books and TV shows about them.
Here is my top list of challenges I've faced:
How to travel for free around the world – from Berlin to Antarctica without a cent in your pocket.
How To Trade For Paradise – Swap An Apple For A Home In Hawaii In 42 Steps.
50 States of Wigge – 50 States, 50 Days, 50 Challenges
Germany by scooter – 2000 miles with a children's scooter in 80 days through Germany.
These kinds of challenges taught me a lot about self-motivation, goal setting, change, resilience and overcoming fears by stepping out of my comfort zone again and again.
It was the best exercise to build self-confidence and become a person who no longer has to constantly struggle with fear of loneliness, fear of failure, fear of rejection and many other fears.
3 steps for YOU to leave your comfort zone and live completely!
1. Write down specific fears and limits that you experience in your life
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This can be travel related, but it can also be part of your daily life. Many of my coaching clients share with me their fear of public speaking, fear of flying, fear of heights, fear of approaching people and much more. Feel free to put all of these fears on a list, including those that may be subtle.
2. Get a challenge journal
This is your diary in which you write down your experiences, thoughts and feelings when you leave your comfort zone. This diary can also contain a calendar for the coming year with the monthly challenges you want to face. It will hold you accountable at times when other priorities might enter your life.
3. Start your first challenge and scale your feelings
Let's say you feel challenged to travel alone. This would be a great challenge for the weekend. You can start on Friday and travel through Sunday. It is good to note in your journal how you are already feeling on the Wednesday and Thursday before.
Is there a hesitation or a subtle fear? If so, it helps to scale these feelings from 1 to 10. One is very low and 10 would be something like a panic attack that is outside the learning zone and is already in your panic zone. Let's say you experience a four and later a six that would be perfect for practicing and pushing your limits. Emotions have incredible power to tell us to get back into our comfort zone and stop exercising.
So your scaling helps you visualize the fear so that you don't get carried away with it. Understanding that emotions always come and go, you can see level six clearly and basically just wait for it to drop down a level to a lower number. Writing down your thoughts and feelings in your journal will help you a lot in this process.
When I started to travel the world for free, I remember leaving Berlin and feeling an existential fear of at least eight. This level of fear caused me to return home and not make the trip. But I got it under control by pulling out my diary, writing and scaling it. Two weeks after the start of the world tour, when I crossed the Atlantic to Canada on a cargo ship, the hesitation and fear had already disappeared! I broke it.
Integrating challenges into daily life
After doing my challenge adventures, I began to incorporate challenges that took me out of my comfort zone into my daily life. Here are some examples:
2012 – I purposely spent Christmas alone to overcome the fear of being alone.
2014 – I moved from Germany to the USA and started my coaching business.
A new life and business in a new country was an intense comfort zone that left at least three years of experience
2020 – The pandemic forced me to continue working on my solitude challenge in spring 2020
In this way I find my life, embedded in an endless chain of challenges, incredibly interesting. Challenges always increase motivation because they make life goal-oriented.
After writing this blog, I plan to take a 400 meter race here in central Colorado this afternoon for the first time in 25 years to compete in a 1000 meter race. The new challenge: train hard to get as close as possible to 3:00 minutes on the 1000-meter course in 2021. I can't wait to take on this challenge and break the barrier of wanting to stay in my comfort zone.
What are your challenges for 2021? I look forward to your ideas! Leave me a comment below.
