Breaking out of the comfort zone
This article just shares my experiences and also to look back myself in this new year like an inner reflection.
In workplace often people choose to remain in their comfort zone, doing the minimal work they are supposed to do. There are various reasons behind this choice.
In your professional career, you may want to start your own business or do higher studies that add more value to your career. But you can not just quit your job and do it. Maybe your family cannot afford to do so.
Maybe you have seen other people taking additional work and responsibility were put under a lot of pressure and they failed miserably.
Our brain feels comfortable not taking risks by doing calm and simple things. Some people have financial risks, family constraints. Its natural to choose the comfort zone at work so that we can tackle the other risk items.
The one who agrees to do more work are ones that are always getting more work.
Sometimes the additional work you did, wasn’t part of your team’s goal and didn’t add any value. Or nobody knows that you took a lot of additional efforts you put in your work. Or maybe your hard work did not produce any results. You will not get any points for making an attempt if it is not present in your OKR.
Most of the times the additional work you do at work does not bring any big difference compared with the others. If you really look at the person who did his work and the person who did 2x work, The difference is just few hundred bucks in the appraisal.
Often people who pretend like they work hard are the ones that get noticed and recognized. Because the people who do the hard work do not advertise, they just simply want to finish their work.
If you are the one who does more, because you think that your superiors will give it back in monetary benefits, you are most likely to fail.
Management doesn’t work like that, Any organisation always wants to do more work with less workforce. They are constrained to their budgets and timelines.
To succeed in the uncomfortable zone you will need more motivation than money, You need a purpose.
Becoming expert in the uncomfortable zone requires both inner motivation and external motivation.
On the inside, you must have the passion and determination to get better and better every day. Your health must cooperate to the additional efforts you do so. In this period you might have to work more than 12 hours a day instead of regular 8–9 hours.
On the other side, your colleagues, leads, managers need to help you go breakthrough the barriers in the uncomfortable zone. Often you will do inefficient work, in the beginning and you would require assistance. Do not be afraid to admit your mistake, take feedbacks constructively and keep on improving.
You cannot just simply rely in the external help. Only you can bring the change if you wish and do so you should maintain a healthy lifestyle. Without good health, you wouldn’t stand a chance against the hurdles you face over a period of time in the uncomfortable zone.
These are few steps I tried myself to get better in the uncomfortable zone,
- Find and fix a learning path
- Make a plan for daily, weekly and monthly milestones
- Prioritise things
- Create the habit of doing daily activity
- Identify distractions and eliminate
- Get feedback from the experts
- Repeat the process
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, feedback or suggestions to improve, please do share.
