Are you living in your comfort zone?

We have been so inspired by our delegates on the Management Development programme who have stepped outside of their comfort zone into their learning zone. Their actions have made us challenge ourselves. Have we become too comfortable, are we still challenging ourselves?

Why do we stay in our comfort zones?

Well, why wouldn’t we? It’s a lovely safe and secure place to be. We perform well, have established relationships and rarely feel out of our depth. Life is relatively risk free and things come easy – Hey, why leave it!

Step into the learning zone

Yet if we leave our comfort zones, we step into the unknown and into the area of learning. By doing this we allow ourselves to explore new things, we seek out opportunities, pursue our dreams, face our fears and thus we develop and grow.

This is the zone we see our Management Development delegates operating in. Month after month we observe them challenge themselves in new and unfamiliar surroundings on the workshops and then take this learning into their day to day work, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, daring to have honest conversations. As a result, we are seeing their confidence and self-belief grow, taking control of situations, sourcing opportunities and making things happen!

Don’t stray too far

A word of caution. Don’t step out too far out of your learning zone as this may take you into your danger zone. For a small amount of time this is OK, even quite exciting. However, I can share from experience that spending too long in the danger zone is not a healthy place to be. My key learn – if you are in your danger zone, feeling anxious, maybe out of your depth, not knowing which way to turn – tell somebody, it could be they could help!

So – Are you living in your comfort zone?

If the answer is yes. Challenge yourself. What can you do to take your first step out of it? What opportunities can you take? What dreams do you want to pursue? What are you going to commit to today?

Remember: “If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.” – John Maxwell