Step out of my comfort zone

When I try something new that is not something that falls within my comfort zone, it usually is something that causes some kind of worries or negative thoughts. As a result, when I try these things I never enjoy them not becuase of the activity itself, but because these nagging worries are always plaguing my mind. “What if this person thinks this about me?” “what did he/she mean by that?” “What if I get hurt doing this?” etc. etc. This is what keeps me from doing these things and when I do actually do them I am miserable because of it. I want to be able to put these thoughts out of my head, but don’t know the answer.

This ties in with one of my other goals, which is to stop worrying about what people think of me. Almost everything that I want to do but won’t do because it is outside of my comfort zone is because I’m worried about what others will think of me. Even when I try to step out of my comfort zone sometimes I won’t do it again, because despite it being a mostly good experience, I spent too much of the time being self-conscious. I wonder how to get out of this rut.