Why Challenging Yourself Is The Best Thing You’ll Ever Do

Complacency is the world’s worst mentality. It may seem outrageous, and frankly dramatic, but too many people are too content to sit back and let the world pass by them. For some, it is simply their state of being, but for others, they struggle to overcome obstacles that have long held them back. Success is not a matter of always winning, but a matter of pushing yourself to do and be better.

If you’re lucky enough to have everything you’ve ever wanted, be sure to continue challenging yourself. If you don’t, you’re not only allowing yourself to get comfortable, but you’re not living up to your full potential. Here are just a few reasons you’ll be glad you challenged yourself:

Find Motivation

If you find yourself without any major priorities or goals, dullness and boredom will become daily occurrences. By challenging yourself to meet a goal, you’ll be motivated to continue. Have you ever gone for a run and lost all desire to keep moving? Aim to run to the end of the street, and you’ll find yourself at the finish line soon enough. Big company CEOs and entrepreneurs would not have gotten so successful if they hadn’t aimed high.

Embrace the Unknown

In the same vein as motivation, challenging yourself to achieve lofty goals will also force you into situations that are unfamiliar. Pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone allows you to become more flexible, sharper, and more confident. It may seem contradictory, but by facing everything head on soon you’ll be impervious to anxieties and doubts that plagued you. Fear will no longer keep you from success, it will help keep you humble and urge you forward. You will have gained the ability to do anything, even things that once seemed impossibly foreign.

Boost Your Belief

Setting goals and challenging yourself to meet them, for everything from learning a new language to networking, while celebrating your small achievements will do more than make you more successful in the long-term. It will boost your confidence and squash any negativity that surrounds your abilities. Small changes and celebrations will make you feel like you’re progressing and help you sell your abilities to the most important client: yourself. Don’t expect anyone to have faith in you if you don’t! You’re the expert on you!

Get Rid of Unhappiness

Your mom may have told you that you deserve to be happy, but that’s nonsense, right? Wrong. When thrown into the cycle of dissatisfaction and boredom, especially at stable (but unmoving) job, it can be easy to think that nothing will change. But if you challenge yourself to make the most out of what you have: your abilities and your potential, you’ll be able to create change. With more confidence and an ability to embrace the unknown, you can do anything, allowing you to chase after whatever makes you happy.

Meet New People

An amazing side-effect to stepping outside your comfort zone, motivating yourself, and being more confident? The fact that you will meet tons of new people. It’s inevitable. You’ll find yourself talking to a stranger who could be your future business partner. Your new mentor. That’s another perk to having confidence: people will be inextricably drawn to you. Even if you don’t form lasting relationships with those you meet, you’ll be happier, even if you only exchange a smile.

Expand Your Mind

So, you’ve challenged yourself endlessly. You’re walking the walk and talking the talk. But now you’ve hit a wall. What can you possibly do next? Well, the great thing about our ever-connected, world of technology is that there is always something new to learn. You can learn about anything: ancient history, neuroscience, or coding. And even if you’d rather not dive into something new, by pushing yourself, you’re still learning and retaining more than you did before. Overcoming obstacles reconditions your brain–you’re already smarter!

The most successful people know that to continue to find success, you must be willing to change and challenge yourself to be a better version of yourself. “The greatest people that I have met are those who face hardship or continuously seek new ways to better themselves,” says David McKenzie, attorney and founder of McKenzie Law Firm. “Experiencing adversity and making yourself rise to the occasion allows you to grow where instant success does not. Opportunities for growth are more common than you’d think, and most don’t even recognize them.”

Challenging yourself, on small and large things, will help you lead a happier and more successful life. Life throws curveballs all the time, but if you aim to jump hurdles you’ve set, in the future you will be more confident and more capable. If you challenge yourself, you’ll be thankful for the struggles and opportunities you’ve experienced, knowing that you’re a stronger and better person for it!