Comfort zone:
Everyone seeks comfort in every aspect of life. In general comfort means “A State” of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. Our daily life is focused around familiar patterns and habits. Even in our high pressure work place we create our own comfort zone. According to Alasdair A. K. White, The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk. One’s personality can be described by one’s comfort zone. Comfort zone is like inertia, a person who has established a comfort zone in a particular axis of his or her life, will tend to stay within that zone.
There are few things that make us feel comfortable:
Familiarity with:
· Location
· People
· Thoughts
· Actions… etc.
According to Thomas Edison- “We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.”
Breaking Through:
Often we decline opportunities because, at heart, we are not confident about how we will respond them. Though we feel most confident within our comfort zone, it’s when we stop being so comfortable that we can actually build confidence. As much as we go beyond our boundaries, the easier it becomes in work as well as other areas of life. The good thing is that you don’t need to jump from rooftop or swim with sharks to start crossing your boundaries. A simple act such as trialing a new piece of software recommended by a colleague or calling a vendor rather than emailing can help you break the shackle. This is helpful for those times when one feel isolated or more responsive than proactive in your work.
Here are few ways someone could break out of the Comfort Zone at work:
· If you shy speaking in front of others, prepare s short presentation about one of your responsibilities and share it at a meeting with your team.
· Eagerly attempt a challenging assignment that normally would be handled by your supervisor or a “higher Level”
· Expand your comfort zone by series of tasks which you never would have considered doing. Those tasks will eventually become something you might do without a second thought. You may find yourself looking for more and ready to make some new plans once comfort sets in.
By breaking your Comfort Zone, You are opening your mind to new experiences, so it’s natural for your goals and desires to change along the way. The rewards for escaping your Comfort Zone are limitless.
But there is a limit:
Stepping out of the comfort zone raises the anxiety level engendering a stress response the result of which is an enhanced level of concentration and focus. White (2009) refers to this as the “Optimal Performance Zone”, a zone in which the performance of a person can be enhanced an in which their skills can be optimized. But White also observes that Anxiety only improves performance until a certain optimum level of arousal has been reached. Beyond that point, performance deteriorates drastically. It is called the “Danger Zone”, in which performance will decline rapidly.
In terms of performance management or development, a manager should ensure optimum performance zone for a sufficient period of time so that new skills and performance can be achieved and become embedded.
Sociology says, People are resistive to any change even if it is positive for them. Staying in own comfort zone for ever will limit your vision and hamper your career development. We have to step outside our boundary and accept changes, which will eventually enable us to build a successful career.Sources: internet
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