Article from Patrick Leddin.
You’re excited about your new job. You want to make an impact. You hit the ground running.
Over time, you build new relationships, deliver good results, and make a name for yourself.
- A few weeks pass.
- Weeks become months.
- Months become years.
- You grow comfortable.
If you see yourself or a colleague falling into the comfort zone, perhaps it’s time to do what all true achievers do:
Proactively Chose to Move Out of Their Comfort Zone & Break the Cycle
Why would you possibly do this? After all, it can be risky, takes work, and you might mess up.
Well, here are 3 reasons to give it a try…
1. Deliver New Results.
Achieving better results, requires a change in human behavior. In other words, it you want to achieve something new, you better step out of your comfort zone and start doing some new things. This isn’t a wildly new concept, but it is often forgotten.
Remember what Albert Einstein said..
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein
2. Keep Work Interesting
Most organizations are looking for marathon runners. These people are great long-term contributors who remain loyal to the organization for years. The problem with marathons is they can become boring. They are monotonous.
Most true achievers struggle with monotony.
To be effective, true achievers embrace the practice of both marathoners and sprinters. Yes, they are committed for the long-term, but they remain interested by running multiple sprints along the way. They take on new projects, tackle new challenges, and strive to move a key metric every quarter.
3. Maintain Brain Plasticity
Our brains have the ability to change physically, chemically, and functionally – but, you have to use it or lose it. Children can quickly learn new things; however, as we age we often lose much of this ability. It’s much easier to learn a new language at 3 years old than when you are 50. It’s not impossible at 50, but it’s arguably much harder.
Sometimes, you need to break the cycle.
If you haven’t heard of him, let me introduce you to Destin Sandlin. He’s a rocket engineer and creator of the Smarter Every Day video series.
My colleague, Josh Chase, introduced me to Destin’s work.
One of his videos teaches all about brain plasticity in which he truly breaks the cycle.
In his situation, he breaks a bicycle!
Watch this video. The Backwards Brain Bicycle (approximately 7 minutes) truly changed the way I think about my brain.
I wish you all the best as you proactively chose to step out of your comfort zone and break the cycle!
