ARE YOU IN THE ZONE?
First of all, what is this comfort zone so many specialists talk about?
A comfort zone, is a safe space. It is this particular psychological state of mind in which the individual feels like heâs in control of his surroundings/actions⌠unsurprisingly, everybody genuinely likes to attain this zone in which you feel at ease. In some simple terms: your comfort zone represents your everyday environment.
Efficiency wise, being in your comfort zone could be an expression used to describe what we could call a steady performance. In this case, the working individual is running low on anxiety or stress and dealing with familiar tasks.
FEEL COMFY? NOT A GOOD SIGN
 This is great Apolline, but, if this makes me indeed comfortable, WHY on earth should you ever try to step out of it if? Why push my boundaries and voluntarily put myself in a situation where Iâm ill at ease?
Iâm no masochist, but over the years, I realised that I never learn as much as when I was dealing with the unknown.
Stepping out of your comfort zone can go as small as challenging yourself to say hi to the neighbor you never talked with, to suddenly feeling like Cristofer Columbus and decide on a whim youâre going to paddleboard across the Atlantic â please donât try this.
The fact is: there is a fine line to NOT cross between a nice adrenaline rush and totally panicking.
Don’t you agree that a bit of stress can go a long way in terms of efficiency? But pushing too much into the unknown can paralyse you and actually have a negative effect.Â
As for me, I try to cultivate on a daily basis some new challenges to avoid stagnating. It went from leaving my house at 16 years old to live abroad as an exchange student to signing up for an imperfection challenge last week to let go of some fears. On the other hand, the day I decided to hop on a plane to discover Iceland and got stuck in a snowstorm was too much.Â
Knowing your limits and slowly growing out of it is an essential step.
SERVES EVERYBODY!
Why not hit two birds with one stone? Not that long ago, we talked about leadership and listening as essentials skills.
The tip .. actually, the two words Iâm going to share with you today are quite simple. It works in both cases because both require a mindset change on our part.
This well-spread technique is used both in improvisation theater and in design thinking. It can serve you as an individual â to get out of your comfort zone and learn to better listen to others â, but also as a team â to create more together and be more attentive to everybodyâs ideas.
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YES AND...WHAT'S THE TRICK?
You just read it!
Let me explain. When we open a workshop, one of the ground rules we establish is âNever say NO, ALWAYS build up on your peersâ ideas by saying ÂŤyes, andÂť. YES, AND. As simple as that!
The last time I said that, was the time I signed up to leave for 3 months in India to discover their entrepreneurship and maker spirit, while gathering new testimonies for Our Millennials Today.
Tell me if you ever end up on the Himalaya because of this trick!
Embrace uncertainty, improvise, youâll figure it out on the way!
Quote source: Seth Godin’s blog
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