It’s easy to sleep in the comfort of a professional life. Here is how to avoid this trap and climb the ladder.
Achieving your comfort zone at work makes you feel secure and fully competent; you know what to do and don’t have to ask questions.
Why complicate life? Do you have to be a masochist to leave your work comfort zone? No, on the contrary, clinging to your comfort zone, professionally speaking, is like driving on the highway with cruise control in the middle of the night. You will roll along peacefully and then suddenly crash. You are driving asleep.
Reaching your comfort zone and taking advantage of it is normal. After all, it was earned through hard work! However, a long-time stay lowers our guard and we lose the ability to innovate. If your professional life is stuck in a rut, now is the time to react, but how?
Imagine, who or what you want to resemble? Do you find any new activities attractive? What do you want to change at work? Inspire and force yourself to innovate by answering these questions. You can change your organizational role, review your work methods, or start new activities. Take a step back from your everyday life, be enthusiastic to the idea of a having an adventure. By staying positive and confident, you will have new ideas.
Reflect: what are your skills? Which have you fully mastered, underused, want to develop, and do not possess? You can start gradually by choosing to work on your weaknesses as much as your strong points. Leaving your comfort zone requires effort and is unnatural. It is important not to focus too much on goals. Being conscious of your full potential and detecting the untapped parts is what is important in this exercise.
Be open to change. Sort of like learning a new dance, your fear of making mistakes or failing cannot stop you from dancing. On the contrary, it should give you the necessary energy to move forward. Do not hesitate to ask for help. Why not take a training course, learn a new worktool, accept a new posting, or work abroad?
Before starting, you must test yourself. As a good manager of your career plan, you should start with a pilot project. Avoid uncalculated risks and ensure you leave your comfort zone by stacking all the odds in your favour. For example, if you decide to speak in public, choose a limited audience before launching into a presentation to the board of directors. Start by addressing your team or committee members then, according to your performance, take the next step. Reduce your stress by aiming for the long run and taking care through feedback, at each step, that you are on the right track.
Welcome to discomfort! Once you are here, back-pedalling is not an option. You will develop a taste for new challenges and instability. Over time, you will strengthen yourself, acquire new skills, accumulate new knowledge, and develop an ability to handle change. In the long term, this will make you a more resistant person renowned for your creativity and adaptability. Challenges will come naturally to you without having to seek them out.
This exercise is only yours. After all, you need to prove to yourself, not your colleagues or boss, that you are capable. This personal process belongs to you.