Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

This article is the fifth in the series of articles written specially to help you out in the new year. All these articles have been written with common new year resolutions in mind, so give your music career the best chance in the new year! Maybe it’s one of your new year resolutions to travel or be more confident and outgoing. If that is on your new year’s resolutions list, you’re definitely ready to leave your comfort zone and see the sights in your music career too!

What is your comfort zone?

Your comfort zone, quite simply, is staying in a place (mentally or physically) where you feel the safest, happy and, well, comfortable! It can be really difficult to get out of your comfort zone and you may be thinking, ‘why should I leave my comfort zone?’ and the simple fact is that you have to in order to further your career!

As Neale Donald Walsch once said, “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” By sticking to our comfort zone, we become accustomed to it and it becomes a lot harder to try new things. But staying inside of your comfort zone will only wind up closing you off from new opportunities and learning experiences.

Broadening Your Horizons

We all want to grow, right? Being able to step out of your comfort zone is so essential, regardless of your role in the industry. You have to be able to get out of your comfort zone to grow so take the dive, it’ll be worth it!

The problem is that putting yourself in new situations can oftentimes be daunting and make us anxious. So, the question is…

How Can You Get More Comfortable in New Situations?

Often, our fear of the unknown is due to the fact that we will generally put ourselves in the worst-case scenario. What if I go to that party and I don’t know anyone? What if I go travelling and I can’t find anyone that speaks my language? We sometimes fail to imagine ourselves in the best case scenario. By putting yourself in new situations on a regular basis you’ll start to paint a more realistic picture of what the challenges and opportunities could be in a given situation, ultimately making you feel more confident. So here are a few suggestions of new endeavours you could pursue to help you get out of your comfort zone!

Collaborate

It is a good idea, for some people, to ease yourself into it. Start with small goals and maybe talk to someone who you don’t normally talk to. Do something that you normally wouldn’t do. You could step outside your comfort zone by working with someone new from time to time, musically collaborating with people in other genres means you’ll learn more and inevitably add to your own music as well as meeting new, outgoing people!

Collaboration is a great way of stepping out of your comfort zone and it really helps in building up your confidence as well.

Explore New Places

I love travelling. I find it one of the most liberating pleasures from the modern age. By travelling you can temporarily leave behind all the worries from your day to day grind and realize that your problems are dwarfed by the enormity of the World. If you would want to up your game and be more adventurous you could consider moving to a new place in search of new experiences and opportunities. As a music professional, this travelling can be particularly nurturing. You could get in contact with new genres, new instruments and new artists that could influence your taste and style.

Hit The Road Jack

Organising and playing a music tour can be a very frightening task, but one that can bear a lot of fruit. If you have become comfortable gigging in the same town or venue, make a conscious effort to get out of your comfort zone and gig in a different town. You could start with the next town across from where you usually gig and then keep going further and further afield.

Organising a tour is an exciting way of exploring new places and building an audience and network elsewhere. You may have the opportunity to meet promoters, venue managers etc who you can build a rapport with in order to play there again in the future. By having a good relationship with them, it’s also possible that they will spread the word about you to their contacts and recommend you if you come up in conversation – that is at least if you made a good impression!

It is even worth investing on a train ticket and going to a networking event in any major city near you. Places like London, New York, LA and Nashville are packed with these sort of events and are great for any aspiring music industry professionals. The opportunities that could arise from one of these events is truly staggering and it will make you more comfortable in networking events.

Get out Networking

Networking tends to be out of a lot of people’s comfort zone! It is an awkward and quite daunting thing that we all need to do in order to do well in all industries, not just music. It is a well-known cliche that it’s not what you know but who you know. Or who knows you by that matter. It’s a great way to gain confidence and you’ll have the opportunity to meet so many new industry professionals if you just step out of that comfort zone and start mingling!

If you’re not sure where to start we have also written a post all about the wonderful world of networking that you may want to have a look at to get some helpful hints and tips on the best way to network and where to go to network. Sometimes it’s worth investing in a train ticket and going to a networking event in any major city near you. Places like London, New York, LA and Nashville are packed with these sort of events and are great for any aspiring music industry professionals. The opportunities that could arise from one of these events is truly staggering and going there will make you more comfortable at networking events in the future.

So What To Do Now?

Well if you’re ready to get out of your comfort Are you looking for new experiences to help you get out of your comfort zone? Мusic Gateway has got your back! Try our worldwide marketplace where you can collaborate with new artists from around the world. have the opportunity to link up with a lot of industry professionals on a global scale, safely through the Marketplace. Sign up to step out of your comfort zone!

So there we have it! I hope this has been helpful for you and has encouraged you to go for it and get out of your comfort zone! You won’t regret it! Remember, life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Good Luck!