We all enjoy being comfortable. I am most comfortable hanging out in our sunroom, watching the birds, and plowing through a book on my Kindle. As much as I enjoy spending time here, I realize that I can’t live my life from this spot! We all have places, mindsets, and habits that make us comfortable, and straying from them can bring that prickly unpleasant sensation of doing the unfamiliar.
However, it is when we are uncomfortable that we experience the greatest growth, and where the greatest advancements are made. So if you are a young NextGen leader looking to grow, you need to get uncomfortable! Try these five tips to get outside your comfort zone so you can achieve more.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but changes do. Sound confusing? Let me explain. Big changes may take a long time to accomplish, that is why so many goals that people set for themselves fall by the wayside. Instead of setting BIG change goals for yourself, break your big change goal down into little itty-bitty, bite-size goals. Then be intentional about meeting your goal by taking action on it every day.
For example, maybe your big goal is to elevate your education so that you are qualified for a leadership position at work. Break that goal down into little goals, which may include
Set aside a little bit of time each day to accomplish one of these mini tasks and you will be on your way to BIG Change.
One big obstacle for ambitious NextGen leaders is never making it clear that you want more responsibility! Never assume that your boss knows that you want to advance. Make it plain. Seek to spend time with your boss or the C-suite execs. Ask questions. And, most importantly, ask for new responsibilities.
Volunteer to head up the project. Look for opportunities that your company might be missing out on and make a plan to take advantage of them and present them to your boss. Even if you think that what you are volunteering for might be a tad outside of your comfort zone, do it anyway! Your boss will be impressed with your initiative, and you will get the opportunity to learn something new.
Be curious about the things that other people take for granted. If something–a process, for example–doesn’t make sense to you, ask for help. If you hear “we’ve always done it that way,” ask your boss if you can look for alternatives that might be more efficient. Caveat here–ask respectfully and don’t come across as a know-it-all jerk. Then go on the hunt to see if there is a better way! You might just discover a better, more efficient way to do the thing, or you will discover that there is a great reason why it is the way that it is. Either way, you learn something.
Get into the habit of being uncomfortable. We are all creatures of habit and tend to settle into routines and predictable behaviors. Switch things up on yourself! If you find yourself always taking the same route home from work, switch it up! Take a wrong turn and find your way home another way. Try a new restaurant, cook a new meal, strike up a conversation with a complete stranger, try a new hobby, read a book in a completely new genre from what you normally enjoy. Get uncomfortable on purpose. If you get yourself in the pattern of unpredictability and change, then you won’t think twice about going for it when the next big opportunity comes crashing in at work. You will have your hand in the air while everyone else is still second-guessing.
Our mindset is the source of our actions and our thoughts. Our brains have been conditioned over the course of our lives to react to stimuli in a certain way, and most of the time we don’t pause to ask ourselves why. So, the next time you have a knee-jerk reaction to something, or you find yourself repeating a pattern that you don’t want to repeat, stop and work to find out what is beneath that is causing you to react in that way.
You might find a belief or an ingrained pattern that isn’t serving you anymore. And maybe you want that to change. Becoming aware of the why behind our actions opens up the door for us to consciously choose how we want to act, and who we want to be in the future.
Which tip will you try first?
© Pamela A. Scott, 2022, MentorLoft.com