🎙 About the episode
In this episode, I discuss my experience doing Europe's highest bungee jump. - from the Verzasca Dam (220 m.) in Locarno, Switzerland. I share some techniques I learned to handle situations out of my comfort zone.
Life is a constant fight against our comfort zone. You push, it tries to push back. Find your comfort zone today, step out of it and as you slowly get comfortable again, push it even further. Don't try to get rid of the fear. Accept it and do it anyway.
🤩 If you want to become the best version of yourself, then this challenge is definitely right for you.
🔑 Key Takeaways
People operate in the comfort zone when not taking any risks. Doing the same routines every day with a limited set of behaviors. We plateau.
Why should we go out of our comfort zone? This is when growth starts (Arnold Schwarzenegger - "only the reps that hurt count, this is when the muscle really grows")
actually I did the same as Pierce Brosnan, James Bond in the opening scene in the movie the golden eye, except the last part where he shot on the floor to get himself to the bottom
no so jokes aside, I first thought this would be no problem and I really was not nervous at all . It was only when It was my turn and I was standing there, looking 220m down.
I had this great feeling for the rest of the whole day
one can take our belongings but not our memories of great events
just schedule it - book it, and then it is a must, you have to go there because you payed for it and put it into your calendar. It is an unspoken rule. If I schedule I will do it.
get the mindset that a certain amount of risk is good and will bring you further in life.
🎬 Outtake
Robert Yerkes and John Dodson experiment: 1908
It was noticed a correlation between anxiety and performance. Performance increases to a certain level of arousal. When arousal becomes too high, performance drops. The process is shown as a bell shaped curve.
However, we have to differentiate because different tasks require different levels of arousal for the achievement of optimal performance. Writing your homework from your scribble to a nice draft requires a high level of arousal, because with this simple task we need more motivation and not so much concentration.
Intellectually demanding tasks like solving a mathematical equation need a lower level of arousal to facilitate concentration. So I think it is good to ask oneself in the next situation where you have to complete a task. Is this an intellectual demanding task or rather easy monotone task? If it is intellectual demanding, and you have to really laser focus, then it is good to for example set a made up deadline for yourself that you have to finish the task in 3 days. So you have time.
If the task is easy and monotone, then give yourself 3 hours. At best, you can even add a negative consequence, for example if you don't finish it within 3 hours you will give your roommate 100 Euros and write a contract with him. Or if you don't want to do it with money that you will invite him for a coffee, but it should be something that hurts.
⭐️ Leave a review
🍏 If you enjoy listening to the neurohackingly podcast, I would really appreciate it, if you could leave a 5-star-review on Apple Podcasts even a few words (lessons learned, actions taken - any feedback) are highly appreciated.
📸 You can also message me personally on Instagram, if you are interested in the topics I talk about on my podcast.
Transcript
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. It's the sentence I tell myself over and over again. I'm standing on Europe's tallest Bunge platform. The platform is so tiny that I had to balance myself. I can still wind. I couldn't step back because the woman had her leg behind me. I can feel the weight of the rope, which is fixated on my ankles, slowly dragging me down.
Looking down, I only see black concrete. There's only one voice in my head now or never. I jump and during the four seconds of free fall, I remember thinking to myself, it's not as scary as it actually sounds. Let me tell you something. I always had the thought that bungee jumping is this big thing that only insane people will do, but it was on that day that I noticed that it is never as scary at it as it sounds, or as I imagine in my head.
It is really only your mind that limits us. We can. So much more than we think. Back in 1940s, it was said that the human body is not capable of running a mile in under four minutes for full nine years. The record for running a mile was four minutes and one second. Perhaps the experts who are right, maybe the human body has really reached its full potential and limit.
But then on May 6th, 1954, Roger Banister did unthinkable as first person in the world history. He ran one mile at a time of three minutes and 59 seconds, and once other people saw it could be done, an Australian runner broke this record within three minutes and 58 seconds, and just one year later, free other runners broke the record in even one single race.
What can we learn from Roger Banister? It wasn't the harsh physical training or daily sprints, Roger did in his trainings. What he did is to shift his mindset. Every day. He visualized himself running through the finish line in under four minutes. He became so certain and focused on. Goal every single day.
We have a system in our mind that is called RS particular activating system, and this helps our brain what to focus on and what to delete. When you have a mission and live every moment in a state of certainty that you will achieve it, you influence what the RS filters out. What comes up, you pay special attention to things that help you achieve what you are really after.
Maybe something that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. So if you are ready now to expand your comfort zone, I have some simple and helpful tools to handle situations out of your comfort zone. The first one is to coach yourself through the situation. We are much better giving advice to other people than to ourselves when we say, Hey Lucas, you can do this.
You can jump. We think it is useful because we are using a name combined with thinking about someone else. It just gives you some distant, and that lets you see the situation rationally. The second thing is to take baby steps. Don't try to immediately jump outside of your comfort zone. Otherwise, overwhelm may set in.
However, if you take little tiny baby steps, and maybe you have. Fear of public speaking. So you focus by taking every small opportunity to speak in front of a small group of friends or family, and then slowly expand. Life is a constant fight against our comfort zone. You push it, it tries to push back.
Maybe ask yourself, what's the fear that's holding? Me back, What am I not saying doing? Because it's outside of my comfort zone. Find your comfort zone today. Step out of it, and as you slowly get comfortable, again, push it even further. Don't try to get rid of the fear, accept it and do it anyways. And remember, and repeat the words like on the Bunge platform, life begins at the end of our comfort zone.
Thank you so much for listening to the Neuro Hackley podcast. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. If you want to listen to more about stepping out of your comfort zone, you can check out my latest episodes on how to Run a Marathon, and eight Tips, How to Run an Olympic triathlon. That's all from me for now.
See you next time. Thank you, and bye bye.