Do you place certain papers in a certain spot on your desk?
Do you travel to work via the same route every day?
Do you have a favorite coffee mug for easy Saturday mornings?
Is there a food you eat when you seek comfort (gooey mac and cheese here!)?
Most of us have some preferred routines and/or objects for a reason. They’re familiar. They’re comfortable. They make us feel safe.
But sometimes that comfort can become confining: sometimes we’re unaware that we’ve created boundaries we rarely step across.
If we’re to grow, learn, and make a positive difference, we have to propel ourselves beyond the borders of our comfort zone. Tim Butler, psychotherapist, director of Career Development at Harvard Business School and author of Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths, says:
Failure to get unstuck can put careers, personal life goals, and the healthy functioning of work teams or organizations at risk.
3 ways to grow your comfort zone
If propelling past the borders of your comfort zone seems overwhelming or frightening, try these three things:
Every week: do something that isn’t “you.”
Eat sushi. Sign up for dance or karate lessons. Wear orange or polka dots. Walk, or sing, in the rain. Make a cold call. Attend a networking event. Read and comment on a blog. Sleep in or get up extra early. What’s important is exploring and experimenting. Without new influences and experiences, a comfort zone can become a self-imposed prison.
Every month: learn something new.
Whether you learn something big or small is up to you. What’s important is learning! Listen to classical music or the Black Eyed Peas. Enjoy an audio book as you drive to work or the market. Take in a TED presentation. Take a webinar. Look up the meaning of an unfamiliar word and use it in a conversation that very same day. Learn a new software. Try out a new craft or sport. Expand all your muscles: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Every quarter: let go of or toss out one thing.
Choose what that one thing is gonna be. It might be an object, a feeling, a practice or whatever your personal baggage might be.
That sweater that hasn’t been worn since high school – give it to a charity.
That slighted feeling you’re carrying around because Betty or Bob ignored you – write it down on a piece of paper, tie that paper to a helium-filled balloon and let it sail away, out of your head, heart and life.
Those beliefs you’re carved in personal granite about how things must always be done – grab your chisel, and start carving away.
That dress or shirt or tie you’ve been saving for a special event – declare today a special day and wear it.
Be perpetually open to learning, doing and being!
What’s your favorite way to blast outside your comfort zone?
Image source: morgueFile.com
Ahh! One of my favorite topics and graphics! (And so much easier to do when it is my choice and I view it as an adventure than when I am pushed outside of my comfort zone.) …But either way there is growth and life there!
I don’t know if I have one favorite way out of the comfort zone. Some days it is with a spirit of fun ad adventure, some days feeling lots of fear and choosing to do it anyway…