How to Challenge Yourself: Top 30 Ways to Get Out of Comfort Zone

Remember the days when you were a student, and your parents compared you with other students in terms of behavior, grades, or something else?

All of it felt so pathetic, Right?

Well, You’re not alone!
Almost all of us have been through the same phase in life at one point or another.

But, do you know the most amazing part?

Most of us never broke the chain of comparison.
As we grew up, we started comparing our looks and personality with other people on social media. Along with it, we started comparing our wealth with our neighbors and relatives. We even compared our health with the people in our gym.

The reality is, it became the biggest reason why most of us failed miserably at personal growth. Either we lost the will to achieve more growth, or we became satisfied with who we are.

All of it was just because we were always looking for a competitor outside when it was actually inside. We challenged others instead of challenging ourselves.

Do you feel this scenario resonates with you too?

If Yes, Continue reading, and this post will change you forever.

Why is it Important to Challenge Yourself?

Cheap people fight with the weak ones. Dumb people fight with the strong ones, while sharp-witted people fight with themselves.

~Sandeep Maheshwari

As you already know, you need to know the answer to the question “why are you doing something?” if you want to become successful at it.
So, here are the 11 undeniable reasons which justify that you need to challenge yourself every day:-

• You stop underestimating yourself, which leads to significant improvement in self-image.
• You explore your hidden potential.
• You realize that there are no limits, and you can achieve anything.
• Your become self-accountable.
• You work harder than you’ve ever done.
• You always try to become a better version of yourself.
• You automatically become self-disciplined.
• You track your progress each day.
• You learn new things every day.
• You stop comparing yourself with others and feel happy for who you are and what you’ve become.
• You improve upon your weaknesses, and your strengths start to glorify.

30 Exciting Ways to Challenge Yourself and Achieve Massive Self-Growth

So, now you know why it’s vital to challenge yourself.

The next question is, “How can you challenge yourself so that you enjoy the process of self-growth rather than forcing it onto you?”

Well, I got you covered!

Here are the 30 exciting ways you can challenge yourself every day to do better and be better:-

How to Challenge Yourself Mentally

1. Stop Being Afraid of Failures.

Do you feel you’ve left out some things you always wanted to do because you were afraid to fail?

Now it’s time to accept the challenge and take the risks that you should’ve taken earlier.
Start doing one task of your choice every day without overthinking about it.
Soon, you’ll witness that you’ll be able to make big decisions fearlessly.

It’s now or never!

Quick Tip: You can check out our guide on how to overcome your fear of failure. It will give you a roadmap that will help make the journey easier for you.

2. Change Your “I Can’t” Attitude.

One of the biggest reasons we can’t accomplish our goals is because of the “I can’t do it” cage that we have in our minds.

If we can’t even believe in ourselves, how can our destiny believe that we are worthy?

So, it’s time for you to challenge yourself and break all the mental barriers (one at a time) that aren’t allowing you to do wonders.
Start each morning with four magical words “I can do it.” Soon, you’ll start to attract all the positive energies of the universe (Law of attraction). Along with it, you’ll feel more confident than ever.

3. Put Yourself in Tough Situations.

I don’t mean that you should jump into all the problems of the world (especially when they weren’t made for you).

I simply mean that you need to stop running away from the problems that come your way. Look them into the eyes and crush them as if they were a piece of cake.
Consider it a responsibility to contribute to your family’s decisions if you feel that your family is going through hard times.

I know that you might sometimes feel distressed and fed up, but the mental growth that you’ll experience will be immeasurable.

Quick Tip: If you feel that you can’t solve problems correctly and quickly, here’s a problem-solving guide that will help you fix things up.

4. Avoid Getting Distracted

According to Psychguides, 60% of US college students consider themselves smartphone addicts.

It is no doubt that with so much social media noise surrounding us, it isn’t easy to stay away from the trap. The dopamine (pleasure chemical) released in our brain upon receiving positive social feedback becomes a cherry on the top for our social media addiction.

So, here’s your next challenge. You need to stop getting distracted from social media or any of your other distractions.

Now, how can you do it?

Try dopamine fasting or social media detox to get over your distractions and addictions.
Just be relaxed in the process, and don’t push yourself too much, or you’ll end up getting frustrated.

5. Look at Positives instead of Negatives.

The second mental challenge you can choose for yourself is to focus on the bright sides of everything instead of the dark ones.

I’ll explain it with an example of studies.
So, Instead of feeling that studies are boring, burdening, or frustrating, focus on the career and future benefits that come along with it. You will find it much easier to study.

It is a fact that everything has its PROS and cons. So, start applying the formula as much as possible.

Personal Challenges for Daily Improvement

6. Deny being Average.

Enough of being average. It’s time for you to challenge yourself to outshine others and stand apart from the crowd.

Wake up every day with the motivation that “you are amazing” and “you can achieve what others can’t.”

Don’t let the noise of people surrounding you make you settle for average. If you feel that you can excel at something, take some time out of your schedule and do it.

7. Follow a Sleep Routine.

You would’ve read it in multiple places that most millionaires and even billionaires wake up at 4 AM.

So, Do you want to follow in their footsteps which might make you feel that you are deserving to be a billionaire too?

The daily challenge for you is to go to bed early at night each day and wake up early.

Quick Tip: You can apply the Kaizen method if you want to overcome the “sleep routine” challenge with ease. Go to bed and wake up 15 minutes early each day and see the magic happen.

8. Create and Follow a Time Table.

Everybody wants to plan and work on a proper schedule, but most are unable to do it.

So, the challenge for you is to do what most of the other people can’t. Start your day by writing down realistic goals bound by deadlines.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with too much work and a strict routine in the beginning. Just increase the work slowly and steadily.

Quick Tip: Here’s an absolutely stunning goals-setting guide for you. It would help you set realistic yet effective goals.

9. Expand Your Knowledge.

Everybody wants to be knowledgeable, right?

Knowledge teaches you to make wise decisions in your life. It opens you up to options that you never imagined. It even helps you to choose a better career path.

So, starting from today, challenge yourself to learn new things every day. You can begin by reading two pages of a book every day and increase them day by day.
Else, if you aren’t interested in reading books, you can read some blog posts for the topic that interests you. You can even listen to podcasts and audiobooks, which could help expand your knowledge.

Quick Tip: If you love to read inspirational stories, I’ve handpicked and written a few of the best ones in the “get inspired” section. Make sure to check them out, and you’ll feel motivated and inspired.

10. Start Sharing Yourself.

Some of us feel the need to vent our feelings, but we can’t do it because we don’t find it comfortable. We feel like others will judge us or make fun of us even when it isn’t true.

If you fall in the category, it’s time to challenge yourself and change this habit.

As per research conducted by ScienceDaily, expressing our feelings in words lowers our sadness, pain, and anger.

So, choose some of your close ones and start sharing what’s going on in your life. You will feel more comfortable if you start by sharing your daily routine and let the conversations deepen with time.
Don’t rush onto sharing the secrets of your life. Analyze carefully if they are the right person to share everything with.

Quick Tip: Make sure to hear what’s going in their lives too. Else, they might lose interest in listening to your problems and story.

How to Challenge Yourself at Workplace

11. Wind Up Tasks Before Deadline

One of the biggest problems at work is that most of us complete our tasks just before the deadline.

It gets over frustrating when we have to work extra hours on some days because we procrastinated earlier.

To fix things up, you can challenge yourself to stop procrastinating and complete your tasks each day. In this way, you’ll be able to deliver your projects on time without over-working and feeling burdened.

12. Be More Efficient.

Achieving efficiency means delivering exceptional quality projects in a short duration of time.

Challenge yourself to improve your efficiency every day.

Now, how to do it?

Try to improve your focus span, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities. Write down your tasks, prioritize them and complete them going from the highest to lowest priority.

Quick Tip: Your productivity levels directly impact your efficiency. Higher the productivity, better the efficiency. So, here are a few working tips that can help you improve your productivity.

13. Fall in Love with What you do.

As per research by Gallup, 85% of people aren’t happy with their jobs.

If you can’t change your job, why not change your mindset?

So, the challenge for you is to love what you do.

Stop working for paychecks. Work for your satisfaction and happiness.

Answer me:- “how can you do something without being happy about it?” There must be something great about your job that other jobs don’t have. Work for the love of it.

14. Start a Side Hustle.

Do you feel that there’s something else you could do along with your job that could help you generate passive income or maybe active income in the future?

Why not start it as a side hustle with your work?

Challenge yourself and stop making any excuses. If you feel that you don’t have time, work for 12 hours a day. If you think you don’t have the resources, make them first.

Start the side hustle now, no matter what!

Quick Tip: Don’t worry too much and just get started with the work. You’ll automatically find the way to make things happen.

15. Be Accountable.

Do you find yourself playing the blame game often with your colleagues at work?

Well, it might be the reason you aren’t getting the success that you deserve.

Stop blaming others if things go wrong. It’s your fault, accept it, improve yourself and move on.
Blaming them won’t fix the problems. Instead, you won’t ever realize and improvise.

Quick Tip: If you struggle to be accountable and try to evade situations, the six simple steps process will help you develop self-accountability starting right now.

Challenges to Achieve your Fitness Goals

16. Stick to Your Diet Plan.

Did you know:- As per “Genesishealthclubs,” weight loss has a whopping 80% contribution of diet and 20% contribution of exercise?

Shocking, right?

So, If you want to achieve your fitness goals, challenge yourself to stick to a proper diet schedule.

If you are a junk food addict, try to eliminate it with time. You can even replace it with some tasty and healthy food.

Quick Tip: You can check out our post on “Mind-Body Connection,” which would tell you more about why it’s vital to eat healthy food and live a healthy lifestyle.

17. Make Physical Activity A Mandate, Not An Option.

Do you feel that you miss out on regular physical activity because of your hectic schedule?

It’s time to change it!

Challenge yourself to do some physical activity for a minimum of one hour each day.

It isn’t necessary to go to the gym. It might be an activity that you love to do. For example, walk or bicycle for one hour in the evening, or maybe enjoy your favorite sports such as badminton, football, or basketball.

Quick Tip: If you feel lazy to get out of bed after work, just get up and do some easy stretches. Trust me. You won’t feel the need to get back to bed.
Also, don’t push yourself too much. Slowly and steadily, let yourself fall in love with physical activities.

18. Add an Extra Rep During Each Set at the Gym.

This point is for all the gym lovers out there.

You can challenge yourself by incrementing one rep after each set of your exercise.
You can even add up a few minutes of fat-burning cardio workout or core workout to your daily routine. Further, keep on increasing the duration as per your strength and requirement.

19. Have a Specified Deadline for Your Goals.

A goal without a deadline is just a dream.

~ Robert Herjavec

Create a deadline for your weight loss or weight gain goal. Further, divide it into daily short goals that would lead you to the end goal.

For example, you can challenge yourself that you’ll lose 10 Kgs of weight within the next 3 months. Then divide it into small challenges that you’ll burn 600-700 calories per day.

20. Don’t Cheat.

Cheating on your meals or exercise won’t get you results.

You might sometimes excuse yourself that you are tired and don’t want to perform any physical activity but go out and party on the same night.

Are you doing justice with yourself? Of course NOT.

Challenge yourself never to cheat with your workout or your diet plans anymore.
You aren’t there to complete the exercises for your trainer or instructors. You are there to become a healthier and a better person for yourself.

Realize the truth and chase your dream physique.

Challenges to Improve Performance in Academics

21. Study for Extra 10 Minutes Each Day.

If you are a student who wants to increase your study hours, this point is just right for you.

Give yourself a simple challenge of adding 10 minutes of study time each day to your daily study routine. For example, if you’ve studied for 60 minutes today, study for 70 minutes tomorrow.

Trust me. These small changes will help you massively in the long run.

22. If You Can’t Focus, Just Hop onto Your Study Table.

As a student, you might sometimes feel that you don’t want to study. You just want to relax, watch TV, and play video games. However, in the back of your head, you might be wondering that you’ve been chilling out for so long already.

That’s when you need to challenge yourself and gather the willpower to get back to study.

If you feel that you will be unable to focus, rather than giving up and enjoying, just sit on your study table with a pen and book in your hand. After a few minutes, start reading a few lines of the book, and here’s when the magic happens. You’ll automatically get immersed in your studies.

Quick Tip: If you are feeling the need to push extremely hard to sit down at your study table, relax or listen to your favorite songs for a few minutes or maybe an hour. All of it so that you don’t get over-frustrated from studies and start hating it.

23. Eat Healthy.

Did you know drinking cold water while working or studying can help you stop feeling lazy?

It is no doubt that our diet and nutrition have a significant impact on our study routine. As per an article published on Forbes, higher carbs intake can kill our productivity, and low blood sugar leads to less concentration.

So, challenge yourself to avoid any junk foods or fatty food and maintain a nutritious diet. Make sure to stay properly hydrated as well.

24. Attempt Mock Tests.

Mock tests aren’t there to lower down your self-esteem. They are there to help you analyze your weak topics so that you can work to improve them.

Don’t be afraid of taking mock tests. Don’t worry that other students will judge you. You study for yourself and not for them.

So, challenge yourself to attempt every mock test, whether it is conducted in your coaching, school, or anywhere else. Reward yourself when you get good grades and learn from the mistakes if you get bad grades.

Try this out, and you’ll surely reach your goals.

25. Study While They Party. Live Like they Dream.

Whenever it’s the weekend, your friend calls you up for a party, and you have two options to choose from:-

1. Party hard at the weekend and waste some of the most precious hours of your life.
2. Sacrifice the party, study hard, and work for your goals.

If you chose the first one, you might end up like them (Average dreams, college, and job). While, if you chose the second one, you might be the one to stand apart from the crowd.

Challenge yourself to stay away from such distractions as much as you can. Sacrifice those temporary pleasures for a permanently bright future.

Quick Tip: I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t party at all. You can do it once a month. It will help you to stay away from burnout.
However, it’s only for refreshment and shouldn’t become a habit. Excess of anything is bad.

How to Challenge Yourself to Improve Self-Love

26. Practice Morning Affirmations.

The way you start your day defines how your whole day will be.

Why let negativity lower down your self-esteem and ruin your day?

Challenge yourself to start each day with positivity. Practice positive affirmations every morning at the time you get up from the bed. It will help you improve self-love and have better productivity, mindset, and self-esteem throughout the day.

Quick Tip: If you are struggling to find positive affirmations that can help you improve your morale. Head over to the positive affirmations written by me, try them out, and you’ll feel better than ever.

27. Say No to Social Media Comparison.

Do you somehow feel you’ve started lowering down your self-image by looking at the images of your friends or likes and comments below them?

You need to stop as it’s hampering your self-love!

Challenge yourself not to compare yourself with anyone. Realize that you are special, you are unique, and you are already the best. Even if you try, you can’t become someone else, and they can’t become you.

If you still feel that you can’t stop the comparison, get rid of social media for a few days. Spend time with your loved ones. You’ll get to know that you are worthy!

Love yourself for who you are and what you’ve become.

28. Create a list of things that you love about yourself.

Sometimes, we focus too much on the negative qualities that we forget we also have positive ones. Further, we end up lowering down our self-love.

To fix it up, create a list of 15 or more things that you love about yourself.

Take it as a challenge to read it every morning. It will keep reminding you that you have a higher number of positive qualities compared to negative ones.

All of it will help you maintain your self-love.

29. Reward Yourself at the End of Every Day.

You feel happy whenever you get a reward, right?

Then why not reward yourself in your daily routine?

After a day full of challenges, analyze how your whole day went.
Forgive yourself if you failed at something and try again. Clap and reward yourself if you achieved what you wanted to achieve.

Your accomplishments towards success and positive attitude towards failure will help you attain massive improvement in self-love.

30. Take Time Out of Daily Schedule for Self-Talk.

In an era where people constantly surround us on social media, it is easier for us to miss out on deep conversations with ourselves.

As per Healthline, the benefits of positive self-talk includes:-

• Lower stress and distress levels.
• Better life satisfaction.
• Improved physical health.
• Better immunity and much more…

Accept the challenge to sit with yourself every once in a while. Have constructive self-talk regarding your life, personality, and skills. Feel gratitude towards God and the family that has raised you.

It would act as a recreational therapy that would help you to improve self-love.

End of the Line

So, Do you have the strength that it takes to beat these challenges?

Go out and start now!

Let’s see if you are stronger than the challenges or the challenges are stronger than you.

I don’t care if it hurts your ego. 
Show me what you got.

Make sure to share in the comments when you conquer these challenges. I am waiting to know about your victory or defeat.

See you in the next post!