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Introduction

By now, you’ve probably heard about something called a Keto diet. Often, we hear the buzzwords and the extreme testimonials but don’t hear about the details. We’ve heard of it, but don’t know anything about it. The Keto diet has been making a resurgence lately. The words “keto diet” blurring into a single word that seems to carry with it its own sense of importance, as though we’re supposed to know automatically what it is, what it means, what it does.

Hopefully, this book will clear up the confusion. In the next pages you’ll discover:

- What is the keto diet, the origins, the way it works and how it’s all done

- Practical ways to diet, the benefits to this diet, why it’s gaining popularity

- Who should jump in and who might want to pass

- What to eat, and what to avoid

- And a look under the hood of macronutrients

Once you’ve gotten this far, you’ll be well on your way to a new thinner, and healthier you.

So, dive in, and be ready to explore. Hopefully, all your questions will be answered.

The Foundation of the Keto Diet

The keto (ketogenic) diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that is designed to change your metabolism. When you eat carbs (Sugars, sweeteners, breads, etc.) your body burns that for energy. Any fats that are consumed with the carbs (meats, cheeses, etc.) are stored in the body as fat for future needs. If there are no future needs, the fat remains stored. This storage of fat is what makes you heavier.

The keto diet is designed to remove the source of the body’s fuel – carbohydrates. The body then begins looking for alternative sources for fuel – namely the stored fat. This metabolic state is called ketosis. The body becomes effective at burning fat, turning it into ketones in the liver to supply energy to the brain.

While this sounds like a lot of scary chemistry, ketosis is a good thing. It not only brings a new source of energy into play that uses up those old fat reserves, but it can also cause a reduction in blood sugar and insulin levels. These three factors when including ketosis can have some remarkable health benefits.

How does this work?

Carbohydrates become glucose when digested. Because glucose is the easiest thing to use for energy, the body will naturally gravitate to the simplest source of energy. Burning fat takes more effort, so it’s stored until some future date.

When food becomes scarce, the body begins to use the reserves stored up. This is called ketosis.

Imagine this: a simple change of selected foods can make a big difference in your overall health and body. That’s because a Ketogenic diet is more than just a diet, it’s a way of “reprogramming” your system to burn fat, not carbs.

What is ketosis?

As mentioned, ketosis is the state of the body when the metabolism changes from burning glucose to burning fat. This can be done temporarily and with some risk by fasting, but that is not sustainable past a few days. Rather than run the risk of ruining your health, the Keto diet is a controlled and satisfying way to create this metabolic switch. When the body switches to burning fat instead of glucose, it creates ketones in the blood. When the number of ketones reaches a certain state, the body reaches ketosis, meaning a quick and consistent weight loss to a healthy weight.

Ketones are the product of the liver breaking down fat into fatty acids and glycerol. From there, fatty acids are further broken down into the energy-rich ketones. It’s a cleaner and less saturated feeling energy source than glucose.

If you’re panicking because you know someone who has diabetes and heard of ketoacidosis, this is very different. Ketoacidosis is a serious consequence of diabetes when the liver produces blood acid. That is a very different physical state. Don’t confuse them; ketosis is a natural and healthy state.

Benefits of Eating Keto

Among other things, this state of ketosis can help control type 2 diabetes and help to turn around a pre-diabetic condition. Burning glucose is a process of peaks and valleys, never having a steady consistency, whereas the keto diet is a steady pull on fats leaving a constant flow.

For that reason, it’s better for the mind as well. There are those who take the ketosis diet specifically for the brain boost it gives.

Since burning fat is steadier than burning carbs, your hunger becomes “normalized,” that is the sudden rush of energy, and the resulting crash right after is no longer the norm.

The keto diet has been used since the early 1900s to control epilepsy and is still being used to help children control their seizures today. In the past few years, there have been numerous studies indicating the positive effects ketosis has on adults with epilepsy as well.

There are numerous research studies to indicate that ketosis helps with: Cholesterol and high blood pressure. Ketosis has been shown to improve triglycerides and cholesterol associated with a build-up in the arteries. The same studies show a reduced instance of blood pressure problems and, as most high blood pressure is related to being overweight, ketosis helps on that end too. When the body adapts and loses weight, the blood pressure reduces.

Lower cholesterol and triglycerides mean a lower risk for heart disease, even for people who are obese.

Insulin Resistance. The cause of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance has been shown in a great many studies to have been curtailed with a moderate-fat, low carb diet. Insulin is the key to burning food into fuel for the body to use, so even if you’re not overweight, a more efficient and effective use of insulin is going to give you better results in sports and daily living.

Healthier skin. One of the most common and immediate results of ketosis is clearer, healthier skin. There are studies that include acne, lesions, and inflammation all reduced or eliminated with ketosis.

Weight loss. Ketosis turns your body into an efficient fat-burning machine. Using fat for fuel is cleaner, more efficient and gives a better mental clarity than burning carbs. Also, diets high in healthy fats are more filling and feel less like starvation, meaning less hunger and less eating to assuage that hunger.

Cancer. While there are many markers that determine cancer, ketosis can “starve” cancer cells, according to some studies. Although more research is needed, there is a theory that while all cells can use glucose for fuel, cancer cells are unable to process any fuel other than glucose. Thus burning fat in the form of ketones means that cancer cells cannot proliferate and “starve.”

It’s not coincidental that some of the best known cancer-fighting foods are featured on the keto diet list.

Brain and neurological disorders. Additional to epilepsy mentioned above, ketosis has been proven effective in fighting Alzheimer’s symptoms. Patients with impairments in cellular pathways can find that their brain takes in the ketone energy in a different way, therefore bypassing the damaged cells. A European study suggested that a therapeutic use of ketogenic diet can alleviate symptoms in headaches, neurotrauma, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorders, brain cancer, autism, and multiple sclerosis.

The study points out that though these conditions are very different from each other, ketones appear to automatically correct abnormalities in cell energy usage, in other words, making each cell more efficient.

There are also studies to indicate it can help with schizophrenia, normalizing the pathways that cause illusions, unpredictable behavior, and lack of restraints. It might even be that the lack of glucose alone is providing some sense of relief as many patients with schizophrenia were observed to eat something with high carbs before an episode.

More research is needed as the effects of ketones on some neurological issues remains unclear, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Longer life. Yes, there is growing evidence that a keto diet is a key for a longer life. In a study of 135,000 adults, high-carb diet was associated with a higher risk of overall mortality. Evidence suggests that saturated fat had the opposite effect, actually protecting heart health and preventing strokes.

With all this information it’s no wonder that the number of benefits from a steady keto diet has been proven over and over again with every test, study, and survey. It controls weight, lowers blood pressure and staves off type 2 diabetes. The mind becomes sharper, more focused and burns its fuel more efficiently.

Why is it Trending?

The ketogenic diet is trending because it gets results. It’s really that simple.

For many years, we’ve learned the food pyramid while in grade school. As it turns out, that pyramid was debunked. Many times. Over and over again, and still we’re taught that the food pyramid is the healthy way to eat. It isn’t.

The fact is, most of us have tried the pyramid way. We’ve regulated our intake, we’ve watched that the greatest amount of our diet is this and least be that. It simply doesn’t work. The myth that being overweight is all about laziness and overeating is wrong and foolish. The fact is that we’ve been told to eat the wrong things.

Then too, when we try to diet, especially following the pyramid, we’re fighting our own body’s needs. With Keto, there are a large number of foods to choose from. Where with most “diets,” you end up craving everything you see others around you eating, with the ketogenic diet you’re left feeling sated and comfortable. In fact, there are no cravings once you’ve changed out your metabolism.

The fact is that we all want to be a healthy weight, we want the energy, the clarity of thought, the health benefits that keto brings. That’s why it’s trending because too many people have found it to be that effective and that productive.

As stated before, it’s trending because it works.

Who Should Consider Keto Diet?

Let’s get this out on the table right off the bat: Anytime you want to change your diet or reboot your metabolism, check with your doctor first. That’s just common sense. Ask, get some more info, teach your doctor what it’s all about if you need to, but get as much info as you can. Having said that, keto is probably for you if you:

Are looking to make a good thing better. Say you’re in pretty good health, you’re a little overweight, but not too much and you want to lose a few pounds and feel better, make your body more efficient and cleaner. You’re looking to make your mind work clearer and your thoughts to be sharp. Even if you’re already healthy, keto can benefit you.

You’re tired of being a slave to sugar. Face it. You have cravings. It’s as bad as trying to quit smoking, you need something sweet, and you need it now. Sugar is a drug, and it’s addictive. Keto is a diet that will help you break that addiction cycle. You’ll feel comfortably full, not continuously hungry as with most diets.

You need to stabilize your blood sugar. Hypoglycemic or diabetic, ketosis handles both extremes. It regulates the blood sugars and evens out the burn rate for cells. It also means no more sugar spikes and drops.

Healing. If you have one of the items listed previously and you’re looking to make a change to encourage healing, Keto diet might be just what you’re looking for.

You’re just looking for all-around better health. Ketosis burns cleaner and more efficiently. It will increase your overall mood, performance, and attitude.

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Guide to LinkedIn

LinkedIn is more than a social media platform. It is a place for businesses to connect. It is the largest professional network where businesses can promote themselves and build relationships.

The Power of LinkedIn for Business

As the most useful social network for businesses and professionals, LinkedIn is powerful for connecting with former coworkers, old classmates and potential clients. But the real power comes from the lead generation, market research and global marketing that comes from this tool.

By increasing your participation on the network by as little as 30 minutes a day you can get more out of your LinkedIn account. Begin by focusing on specific areas, such as expanding your network, promoting your business or publishing content around your expertise and passion, and to build followers.

For example, as an owner of a floral shop, you spend 30 minutes publishing a short article about the different flowers available during a certain season and how this can save the consumer money. This article showcases your expertise on the floral industry. This, in turn, brings in potential affiliates, partnerships and builds your network among the commerce community.

LinkedIn’s power lies in its networking power. It works the same way on this site as it would in real life.

Leads and tips are created organically with networking connections. The social media site provides businesses and professionals with the opportunity to grow their reach and join or “link to” a wide community of other professionals in a vast array of fields.

You can use the LinkedIn platform to:

• Connect with and join groups
• Gather information
• Find events happening in your area
• Share your own content
• Add your own professional expertise to a conversation

Everyone on LinkedIn is there for the same reason: to create and build their business network.

How to Grow Your Following

You have a LinkedIn account, so now you need to grow your following (and keep them dedicated). LinkedIn is a large platform of businesses to network with. People will follow those they know, admire, are recommended to them and people they find engaging. To grow your followers, you need to create an engaging profile summary, connect with people you know and write informative or entertaining articles, among other things.

Grow your following by implementing some of these suggestions…

Create an optimized profile with relevant keywords, company profile picture and a background photo. People like to see who they are doing business with. Your profile needs to highlight your professional story. Describe why followers should trust you and your company.

Completely fill out your company profile including:

• Your Logo
• Company description
• Website URL
• Company size
• Industry
• Company type
• Location

Ask your employees to join LinkedIn, listing your business as their place of employment. Their friends and associates will see your link and often follow you.

Follow your current clients and business associates. They will likely follow you in return. Ask existing and potential clients to connect with you on LinkedIn. Adding a personal note when you click connect can remind them of how you met or show them the value your business offers.

Create a LinkedIn company page that showcases your company’s unique story that includes its history, mission and culture.

Add your LinkedIn Follow button to your website, blog and newsletter.

Create showcase pages specifically to draw customers to individual pages for different products, services or events.

Add your LinkedIn link to your email signature. Email is still one of the best ways to connect with your customers. Having your LinkedIn link in front of them when they read your newsletter encourages them to click through and follow you.

Create and follow a consistent posting schedule of good content.

Invite your current followers on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to follow your LinkedIn Page.

Send personalized invitations to people you want to connect with. Replace the default invitation LinkedIn provides with one that is personalized. It shows them you are actually a valuable professional connection.

How to Engage Your Following to Grow Your Business

Now that you have those followers, you want them to engage with you. Engagement is one of the main reasons businesses are on social media. Providing engaging content that’s entertaining or inspiring is one way. Here are several other ways.

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Essential List Building Guide

Building a prospective customer list is one of the most important business activities every entrepreneur should make a priority. As soon as they launch their business, they should start to grow their list, and then try to grow that list a little every day or week in a number of ways.

The benefits of list building

List building is important because it gives you the chance to get to know your prospects better, and for them to get to know you. One of the most common mistakes business owners make these days is in focusing more on social media marketing than on email marketing list building. They’ve heard, “Email is dead,” and so they don’t spend the time on list building that they should.

Nothing could be further from the truth. People still spend about 2 minutes of every 5 on their Smartphones reading and acting upon emails.

Email list building opens the door to more effective relationship building than you could ever manage on something as fleeting as a social media post. Once they are on your list, you can send them helpful content that will hopefully be so useful, they will look forward to reading more and perhaps even pass the emails along to others.

Money-making opportunities

You can also earn money from every email if you provide a link to one of your products or services. The topic of the email can provide a logical context for the link and the product, such as, “If you would like to learn more, visit URL.”

Studies have shown that a prospect is around 75% more likely to buy a product that they have received an email about, rather than if they only see it online or at one of the popular social networks.

You can also send out promotional emails about a specific product, and/or a special deal you are offering. It could be a special seasonal sale, or a new product launch. Treating the people on your list as special is one of the best ways to keep them on your list, and one of the best ways to make them feel special is by offering them insider pricing. The deals should be so good, they would feel silly to pass them up, and might even be so excited, they share the deal with others.

Getting them on the list

In the early days of email marketing list building, offering a newsletter was enough. These days, it can be a harder sell. Now most people will expect a high-quality incentive to get them to part with their valuable email address.

The two best incentives for building your list are a free download such as an ebook or special report, or an ecourse of several lessons, such as 5 or 7. Both will work well provided the incentive focuses on a hot topic in your niche or industry. Think of some of the most common things people have trouble with in your niche. Also review your product line to see which would be the best ones to link to in order to make a sale once they signed up.

An ecourse is a better option for 2 reasons. The first is that the would-be prospect might register, grab the download, and then unsubscribe. The second is that the more emails in an ecourse, the more points of contact and chance to build a relationship, show what you have to offer, and perhaps even make sales.

The steps for setting up your list are:

1. Register with an email marketing platform.

MailChimp and Aweber are two popular choices. MailChimp is free up to the first 2,500 subscribers on your list. Aweber is a paid service that runs at about $20 per month. It is pretty much the industry standard for small online businesses and offers a range of attractive templates and a step-by-step process for setting up each new list.

2. Create your incentive. It can be just about anything; report, checklist, ecourse, etc. But it must be informative, inspiring and valuable in your readers eye.

3. Organize your promotional links. These include links for each product you are planning to sell within the context of each email. Any resources (free or paid) you plan to discuss in your emails. Any affiliate links you may be adding to your emails and so forth.

4. Create a new list in your email marketing platform. Follow the instructions given by the service provider you choose to go with.

5. Create or edit the confirmation email. This email will be automatically sent when potential subscribers sign up. They will be asked to click the link in the email to confirm they really do want to be on the list. This is known as a double-opt in and helps avoid accusations that you are a spammer.

6. Create the confirmation page. This is where new subscribers will be redirected to once they confirm they want to join your list. It should thank them for signing up. It might tell them to check their inbox for further information. It might contain a download link or other information that they may need to know.

7. Create the welcome email for the list. This will be in the Follow Up or Autoresponder messages area and will:

a. Thank them again for joining.
b. If you are offering an ecourse, introduce it and start your first lesson.
c. If you are giving a free download, give the link here.
d. If you are offering a download, create the page where they can get it and use that email in Step 7a.

8. Create the sign-up form they will use to subscribe. You will need a minimum of their first name and email address. You might wish to ask them for their last name or other details you require. Short and simple works best though.

9. Paste the sign-up form code into your website page. Add details about the incentive, paste the form code in, and save. Then publish to your site and start driving traffic to that page, which is known as a squeeze page because you are squeezing the information from them.

10. Upload follow up messages to your autoresponder. These might be additional lessons, if you're offering an ecourse. It might be follow-up emails to try to sell subscribers your products or services.

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Introduction

WordPress claims that its software is used to create more than 1/3rd of all the websites on the World Wide Web. Speak to any beginner or veteran blogger, and you will find that WP software is easy to use, versatile and reliable, there are thousands of free templates that look professional, and you can host your blog for just a few dollars each month. When you begin to think of the staggering number of websites and blogs on the Internet, the fact that WP is so prevalent really says something about that blogging platform.

Did you know that 2017 saw more than 86% of business-to-business (B2B) companies blogging? Add video to your blog, and you increase organic, free search engine traffic by 157%. The Social Media Examiner website reveals that 2 out of every 3 online marketers have a blog. Additionally, 65% of internet marketers say they are going to increase the amount of time they blog, and websites that have a blog attached have more than 4 times as many pages indexed in Google and other search engines.

One study shows that at least 60% of all blogging content is considered low quality, or irrelevant altogether. This means that all you have to do is consistently produce high-quality content and you leapfrog ahead of most of your competition. All these studies reveal that millions of people blog regularly, and all that accumulated time and effort and would not be spent unless these blogs were paying off for their owners.

Speaking of making money, if you are considering starting a blog as a moneymaking venture, CreateandGo.com has some really good news for you. That company did some research into some notable bloggers and found more than 20 making between $40,000 and $1 million per month. Yaro Starak founded and runs the Entrepreneurs Journey blog, cashing in for more than $40,000 per month. Jon Morrow earns $100,000 per month from his Smart Blogger website where he teaches people just like you how to succeed at blogging.

You probably don't need to generate that much income from your blog to quit your current job and provide financial security for your family. The good news is that your blog can do exactly that. In this guide on how to make money blogging, you will first learn how to get your blog up and running. There are easy to use, free and paid options which can have you sharing your content with the world in no time. Seriously, if you know how to send and receive emails, you have the technological know-how to build, manage and make money from a blog. Creating your blog is the easy part. Once you start blogging, how do you begin to turn your web property into a passive income source? That is what the meat of this report is about. The monetization methods discussed here are used every day by the most successful bloggers to generate truly life-changing income.

You will learn about the simplest and fastest way to make money from your blog with the fewest headaches and little to no customer follow-up (affiliate marketing). We will also discuss passive revenue streams that take a little more time and effort to develop (selling your own digital products), but you benefit from ownership of the products you sell as well as 100% control over the process.

Let's get started on your blogging monetization education with a short discussion on how to create your web property, and why it is imperative to own your blog.

Money-Making Blogging Begins With Owning Your Web Real Estate

Starting a blog has never been easier. Sites like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com can have you up and running in less than 5 minutes. You pick a name for your blog, choose a template, write a post, and click submit. Congratulations. You are now an official blog owner.

These platforms are free and recognized by Google, as well as easy to use. You invest nothing more than your time and mental energy, which is the biggest selling point for free blogging platforms like these.

Tumblr.com, Medium.com, Wix.com, and HubPages.com are a few of the other popular free blogging platforms. As easy as these types of blogging services are to set up and manage, here is why you probably shouldn't be using them.

You don't own your blog.

Ownership on the web is important. Imagine that you take the time to build a blog on one of the above-mentioned platforms. Everything goes swimmingly well, you begin to attract some serious traffic from the search engines that doesn't cost you a penny, and you are actually making money from your blogging efforts. Then one day you attempt to log into your blog, and it isn’t there.

This is what can happen when you don't own your own domain name and host your blog yourself. By the way, this is a very real occurrence that happens all the time. You absolutely must own your little corner of the web. That means purchasing a domain name from a domain name provider like GoDaddy. You can buy a domain name for about $15 or $20 per year, and GoDaddy offers sales all the time. You then turn to someone like HostGator for your hosting plan, and that company currently offers monthly hosting for less than $10 per month.

You install a website platform like WordPress ([email protected], not to be confused with the free WordPress.com site) and begin blogging. There is a little more effort involved, but you can pay someone at sites like Fiverr and Freelancer.com $50 to $100 to create your blog. This way you own the domain name. No one can kick your blog out or delete it for any reason.

The reason free blogging platforms are so popular is that they don't cost any money. You probably have come to realize in life that you get what you pay for. If you want to get a blog started immediately, by all means, use one of the free platforms if money is a problem right now. However, you should start tucking away some cash so you can eventually own your own dedicated blog.

This gives you 100% control over your destiny, and with such low costs for entry and ongoing maintenance, it doesn't make any sense to put the future of your blog into the hands of a free blogging platform provider that can shut it down at any time, without having to explain why they do so.

Make Money from Your Blog Today with Affiliate Marketing

You probably have heard of a company called Amazon. The world's largest retailer online or off achieved a market capitalization of a staggering 1 trillion dollars in September of 2018. That is 1,000 billion dollars. Do you know what Amazon's premier source of advertising is? Affiliate marketing is the main advertising model Amazon has chosen for getting web surfers to buy items from its online marketplace.

Affiliate marketing is without a doubt the easiest and quickest way to make money online. You don't even need to own a blog or website to benefit from this powerful marketing model. Pat Flynn is the creator of the Smart Passive Income blog and podcast. Each month he reports the income earned from different marketing methods. He routinely makes more than $30,000 per month from affiliate marketing.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Have you ever worked as a salesperson? If so, you understand that you got paid for selling products you do not own. That is what affiliate marketing is. Individuals and companies will pay you a commission when you convince someone to buy the products or services that an individual or company is selling. All you do is send traffic to a website or blog, and if someone you sent to that web property makes a purchase, you get paid. Commissions can range from as low as 4% to as much as 100% per sale. You don't deal with customer service, refunds, or product delivery. All you do is write high-quality blog posts, publish them, include your affiliate link and then work on getting as many people to read your blog post as possible.

Head to a top affiliate marketing platform like Amazon Associates, ClickBank or JV Zoo. You can alternately perform a search for "your blogging niche" + "affiliate offers" to find a company offering affiliate marketing opportunities relevant to your blog. Register for free and browse around for a product to promote. You will be given a different affiliate link for each product you choose, and you add that link to your blog posts.

If anyone reading your content clicks that link, he or she is taken to the sales page of the product you are promoting. You are paid if that person buys that product or any other product from the company you are affiliated with. Once the sale is made, there is nothing else for you to do. Product delivery, customer follow-up, up-selling, and any other customer interaction is handled by the company you are working with, not by you.

Benefiting from Long-Term Cookies

Amazon currently offers 24-hour cookies to its affiliates. What is a cookie? An affiliate cookie is a piece of code that tells a company where its traffic came from. This is how Amazon, ClickBank or any other company knows who has earned a commission. Amazon is very good at converting traffic into buyers. All you have to do is consistently send Amazon traffic through your blog, and for up to 24 hours after one of your readers clicks an affiliate link, if they buy anything at all from Amazon, you get a percentage of the sale.

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Introduction

A ‘Comfort Zone’ is defined as a state which is familiar, and a person feels at ease and in control. When you’re in your comfort zone, your blood pressure is lower, your heart beats slower, you feel like you have enough to eat and drink, and probably have affection in your life. We’re hard-wired to accept these conditions as ideal. Who wouldn’t want to be in a place where they’re protected, adored, and in control? The problem is, comfort is only comfortable when there is nothing to disrupt it. Nothing changes. Neale Donald Walsch, author, and motivational speaker put it this way: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

The very definition of a “comfort zone” precludes any change. There can be no growth, no creativity, no advancement, no change, or it wouldn’t be a comfort zone.

But true growth, excellence, and achievement cannot come from stagnation. Your dreams, your goals cannot be achieved unless you are first willing to leave your comfort zone and spread out, take chances and occasionally fail.

Think of the muscles in your body. If you never stand or walk or run, your leg muscles will eventually give out and atrophy. To have strong muscles, you need to press them, challenge them, and make them sore. Yet even knowing this, it’s easier to sit with your feet up and watch TV, even if that won’t help your leg strength.

As scary as it can be, as painful as it can be, breaking out of the comfort zone is not only important, its mandatory to reach your goals. Remaining where nothing changes means stagnation and death if only the death of a dream or the future.

It’s no myth that horses will run into a burning barn. The stall they’ve lived in for so long has become a comfort zone. There they are fed and groomed and kept from harm, so they return to what’s safe.

Animals who spend too much time in a small cage will often limit their activities to an area that fits that pen, even when given a larger expanse, or even freedom. That which exists outside of the comfort zone is frightening and unpredictable. It’s also where life happens. And as frightening as it may be, leaving the comfort zone is a vital step in growth.

Here’s the catch: Once you have moved out of your comfort zone, you’ll create a new one. Motivational speaker, Robin Sharma said: “As you move outside of the comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.”

In the analogy of the caged animal, they may have been free to roam in the wilds once, fighting incarceration, but the cage they feared now becomes the very cage they fear to leave.

Comfort zones are good places to rest, to gather strength, to analyze and even examine your life, but you can’t stay in one forever. In order to grow, you need to consistently push yourself harder and harder.

Let’s take a look at comfort zones. Why are they so hard to leave? Why are they necessary? And how can we break free from them and finally grow?

Benefits of Getting Out of the Zone

At the turn of the 20th century, two psychologists determined that “a state of relative comfort created a steady level of performance.” In other words, once we reach a comfort zone, we expend as much energy as we need to remain static in that zone.

When change is forced upon us by events out of our control, then we change our efforts to fit the new “normal.” If the comfort zone is threatened or altered, we may have to worker harder to maintain it through rising costs and then adjust to the new reality. If things become easier, then the temptation is to lessen our efforts as it’s easier to maintain the status quo.

That’s why it’s a “comfort zone” – it requires no extra effort to maintain. Notice, however, that the new normal becomes the new comfort zone. Growth and progress come just outside of the comfort zone, in a state referred to as “optimal anxiety.”

Optimal anxiety isn’t a new idea. If you’ve accomplished something great, or been able to reach a goal, you’ve been there already. It’s found where you’ve pushed yourself to meet that goal.

Bear in mind that pushing too hard or being pushed too hard will create a pushback response, and performance takes a dramatic downturn. In this case, it can also reinforce the idea that challenging yourself is a bad idea. You can even convince yourself that you’re unable to succeed. We naturally want to return to our comfort zone.

This means that leaving the comfort zone isn’t easy. However, with practice and continued success, challenging ourselves can become addictive in the way athletes become “addicted” to working out and pushing themselves physically.

Even though pushing out of your comfort zone is uncomfortable and challenging, there are many benefits to sticking to it. Here's a list of benefits you can look forward to once you are committed to moving towards your fullest potential.

Your self-awareness will increase

“Every entrepreneur knows how agonizingly difficult it is to make the decision to give it your all, knowing that failure is inevitable; the successful ones know that the only way to get back up is through learning from that failure.” Fabrizio Moreira, Ecuadorian political dissident, and businessman.

The difference between “failing” and “learning” is whether you get up and try again or not.

You won’t recognize yourself

Seriously. If you set out to prove you can write a novel and you do, you will forever see yourself as someone who has written a book. If you set your goal to make Vice President of the company, and you do, you will see yourself as a “go-getter” who can and has climbed the corporate ladder.

Getting out of your comfort zone means you have to reassess who you are and how you see yourself. It creates confidence and self-assurance. You might even be surprised how much you like the new you.

Others will see you differently too

You’re going to be the go-getter at the office everyone talks about and envies. You’re going to be the example to others who don’t leave their comfort zones. 7 Have you ever wondered how someone got to where they are in life or in work? That’s going to be you, and that new perspective will change the way others see you, probably forever.

You’ll learn new skillsets

When you take a step out of your comfort zone, you’ll get the opportunity to develop new skills and abilities. This is one of the things that makes life exciting instead of boring.

Your productivity will increase

Comfort is the best, fastest and most sure way to kill productivity. How many times have you described your current job as a “rut”? If you’re only making the barest minimum effort to maintain, you’re not producing near what you could be doing.

Leaving the comfort zone hones your focus and concentration. Taking a risk can be scary, but it’s also exciting. Once you take that first step, you’ll notice you look forward to learning new skills and attacking different tasks. Life is no longer ordinary. Learning new things will improve your focus and concentration so that you are more productive and on-task.

You’ll get further than you ever believed possible

Once you step outside of the comfort zone, you’ll push yourself harder, focus better and achieve more than you ever thought possible. Remember that failing is okay, it’s part of learning. You might find that each trial, each learning experience is a milestone getting you closer and closer to your goal. You might even discover that you can go past your goal and achieve even more than you ever dreamed of.

Change will come easier

Getting out of your comfort zone means that you’ll be better equipped for change. You’ll become more resilient. So, when unexpected changes come, or your plans don’t go exactly as you’d hoped, it will be easier to bounce back.

You’ll be more creative

There’s really no reason to be creative when you’re resting in the comfort zone. But branching out will help you to see things from new perspectives. Those new perspectives along with the new challenges you’ll take on will inspire you to get more creative in your problemsolving. It will help you think outside of the box.

Don’t misunderstand, a comfort zone is not a “bad” thing, nor is it intrinsically good. It simply is. It’s a natural state toward which we all gravitate, becoming enamored with the concept of comfort and security. Comfort zones are for resting, for taking stock, for assessing all we have accomplished and created and have done. They are necessary. They are also addictive, and occasionally hard to break out of.

When the comfort zone is a place we refuse to leave altogether, that’s when it becomes problematic. Going to bed is a necessary thing for rest but staying in bed all day leads to depression and irritability. Let the comfort zone give you rest and peace, but when it’s time to move on, move on. The benefits will be worth the challenges.