“Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone.”~Robert Allen
It is so easy to get comfortable and stuck in our comfort zone. We know what we like; we know what to expect; we know where we’ll excel…and we stay there. Outside of this zone is risk and scariness, so we continue where we are with what we know.
This works…sometimes. However, while the zone outside of where we are comfortable might be scary and risky, it is also the area of growth. It is our opportunity zone, with so much potential and possibility.
We recently designed a program for high-potentials at a client’s organization. These people were their “cream of the crop,” their hope for the future. Over two days we worked with the group and helped them see how they were limiting themselves, their lives, and their careers by unknowingly staying with what they knew and where they were comfortable. We put them in awkward situations, asked them tough questions, and helped them feel ill at ease…until they got more comfortable with that. We pushed them beyond where they were used to going, both physically and mentally, to identify what it was they wanted…that was out of their comfort zone.
I saw then, as I have seen so many times in my own life and in the lives of others, that there is so much possibility when we stretch and try. We may need to build up to it; we may need to gather support and encouragement; we may need to even take baby steps that work us towards our goal – but when we do, when we reach beyond where we usually comfortably stay, we find ourselves in an arena of opportunity. We find so much of what we want.
Take at least two actions this week that put you outside your comfort zone and closer to what you want.
Where are you staying inside your comfort zone? Where can you stretch outside of it?
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If you enjoyed this post, you can read more like it in our book, The Power of Thoughtful Leadership: 101 Minutes To Being the Leader You Want To Be, available on Amazon.
If you want to go for it, contact Robyn at rmcleod@chatsworthconsulting.com.
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