Comfort Zone: Too Bad For Growth
Few months back, I read a small story over some social media platform which I want to share with others as well.
It's a story about a mouse who was put at the top of a jar filled with grains. He was so happy to find so much food around him that he no longer felt the need to run around searching for food & now he could happily live his life.
After a few days of enjoying the grains, he reached the bottom of the jar. Now he was trapped and he couldn't get out of that jar. He now has to solely depend upon someone to put the grains in the same jar for him to survive. Because he is now dependent on others, he
- may not get the grain of his choice
- may not get the grain on time
- even if he comes out of the jar, he may find it difficult to put efforts to search for food as he is no longer in the habit of putting the efforts
Most of us are same as this mouse and that jar is nothing but our Comfort Zone. Once we go into our comfort zone, we definitely enjoy the little pleasures in the beginning but never realize the long-term impact on our growth and on our lives. We start finding excuses for not coming out of that comfort zone. Some of the excuses which people I have heard:
- I was getting opportunities to learn
- I have so many years of experience, it's difficult to switch now
- I am on work visa/permit so it's difficult & lengthy process
- It's difficult to switch with just few years of experience
- I have been working in this technology/domain since I started my career, it is too late to switch now. I can start from scratch
Don't be surprise, but I have also used or still using these kind of excuses in my life.
We lose our self-confidence as we always run away from change, and from taking risks. Later, even people around us start taking us for granted because they know that we are in
our comfort zone and not in a position to take any risk. Initially we
enjoy this comfort zone, later whenever there's a reality check, we find
it very difficult to handle. I have seen people going into depression
whenever they are forced to come out of their comfort zones for unwanted reasons.
I want to make one thing clear:
Getting out of comfort zone doesn't mean that you always need to switch the company/employer. You can also switch:
- To new projects where you get opportunities to learn something new which you haven't experienced in the past
- To different departments or teams within same company
- To different roles within the same company
We have below three zones:
Comfort Zone: It's the zone where you are the scared of challenges & changes. This is the roadblock to success and growth.
Risk Zone: The moment you come out of your comfort zone, you enter in the risk zone because everything will be new to you. You may take time to settle in that. Only way to come out of this zone is by continuously learning and upgrading yourself. It will take time and this time is inversely proportional to your learning efforts.
Success Zone: And the moment you come of that risk zone, success zone will be waiting for you to welcome you. In this zone, you will realize lots of difference in confidence level and in your attitude towards life, problems and challenges.
Just Need To Remember:
Some changes will be very smooth that you won't even realize but some changes will be very difficult & painful. You may find few changes very challenging in the beginning but later each change will become the stepping stone to your success.
!!! Best of Luck !!!
!!! Happy Learning !!!
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