Comfort is a good thing, right? We look for comfort in the furniture we
choose, we enjoy comfort food on a cold, rainy evening; we even have
heated seats in our cars. Being comfortable is satisfying,
desirable even safe. Comfort is what we strive for every day, perhaps
without even realizing it. Our natural, human instincts actually drive
us toward safety and comfort. Why, then, must we get uncomfortable?
Your comfort zones serve no purpose other than prohibiting your own growth and keeping you from achieving.
I know that is hard to hear. But the truth is, you cannot grow and be
comfortable at the same time. Growth feels uncomfortable because it
pushes you out of your comfort zones. To grow, you must develop your
potential, and that potential always lies just beyond your comfort
zones.
Everyone has comfort zones that they must systematically push past in
order to achieve. So where do we start? If everything in our makeup and
every instinct we have is hard-wired for comfort, how do we break
through that?
Choose to have a positive attitude
A positive attitude is a predetermined habit of thought dominated by
faith, hope, and positive expectancy. If you do not assume personal
responsibility for developing your own effective, positive attitudes,
the world around you will shape your attitudes with average thinking,
which is usually negative and unproductive.
You must choose to maintain a positive expectancy despite the pessimism
and negative thinking that saturates your surroundings. Intentionally
choosing to maintain an effective, positive attitude will be your most
significant lesson in life. Your daily management of the choice of
attitude, on a moment-by-moment basis, is a key element in your future
achievement.
Learn and practice a new skill
Developing confidence in a new skill requires practicing something that
you have never done before. Whether it is cold calling, practicing your
prospecting techniques, or learning a new software program, developing a
new skill will not be easy, but you will develop confidence from the
experience of successful attempts. You try something, it works, and you
have more confidence for the next attempt.
Of course, those successful attempts are often surrounded by
unsuccessful ones. The experience is usually uncomfortable in some way.
Resist the urge to revert back to your normal routine when you
experience discomfort. It is in this uncomfortable position that you
experience growth, and growth is foundational to achievement.
Be accountable to your mentor
It is important to seek an outside-in perspective to bring about the
kind of change you need for sustainable achievement and growth. This
perspective can come from a mentor or group of people with like-minded
interests to whom you choose to be accountable for your goals. Find
someone who has achieved at the level to which you aspire, learn the
right things to do from that person, and then report in to them
regularly about your progress.
When you choose to be accountable, you make a commitment to do what you
say you are going to do and consistently increase your performance until
you reach your goals. Without that accountability, it is much easier to
slide back into old patterns of ineffective actions and behaviors.
In order to achieve, you must posture yourself in a way that allows you
to get uncomfortable. Pushing past your comfort zones into new territory
is not easy or even natural since your brain instinctively views this
growth and change as a threat and encourages you to retreat to more
comfortable activities. That is why unproductive habits are so difficult
to change! It is also why mediocrity is the norm, and achievement is
the exception.
Make yourself the exception by choosing to have a positive attitude,
learning and practicing a new skill, and being accountable to a mentor.
You can rise above those comfort zones, get uncomfortable, and you can
take control of your achievement and destiny.
It's Time to Get Uncomfortable
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