Break The Comfort Zone
If there is one thing that leaders aspire for, it is growth . People don’t want to be stagnant, They want to move ahead in their work. However, just after a couple of years of their job or business, they begin to become comfortable and feel in control.
The human brain is powerful. It allows us to build rocket ships, explore science and overcome unimaginable challenges. Yet it also craves comfort. And those who given in to this comfort, often find themselves where they are, doing what they are doing.
I just wrapped up an episode with Vasuta Agarwal, Managing Director, Asia Pacific at InMobi, for The Payal Nanjiani Leadership Podcast.
Vasuta says that the challenges one faces when breaking the comfort zone are impossible to predict, and one cannot be prepared for some of them and one has to do it with a leap of faith and hope that one will be able to learn, grow along the way.
We all know that our comfort zone is all that we have, the problem is living in our comfort zone, which means that you will continue to do the same things that you do now and get the same outcomes. Each leader has his or her own comfort zone and what it means to step out of it is different for everyone but as the world has entered a very uncertain business environment, most leaders today fear stepping out of their comfort zone.
On the Payal Nanjiani Leadership Podcast, Payal asked Vasuta how she breaks her comfort zone; to which she replied that changing her career path from one to another was her way of breaking the comfort zone. She further added that the challenges one faces when breaking the comfort zone are impossible to predict, and one cannot be prepared for some of them and one has to do it with a leap of faith and hope that one will be able to learn, grow along the way.
What helps in these situations is not to overthink these decisions because we get paralyzed by the decision-making process because we think that these decisions are for life and we hesitate to take that leap of faith.
When asked , “why does one overthink and what can one do to overcome the challenge faced by overthinking?” Vasuta replies, “We tend to overthink decisions specifically related to career moves because we believe that decision is for the rest of our lives, these days it is impossible to chart out our careers because we are no longer in an economy or in an industry where you can plan so much ahead and if you just look at the current environment just within the last 12 months our lives have been disrupted.”
Greatness begins outside of your comfort zone. Be comfortable moving your “limit line”.
