6 Steps to Leaving Your Comfort Zone

Here’s the scary truth: leaving your comfort zone is HARD. You’re living your nightmare in real life. But if you don’t take the first steps to challenge yourself or allow yourself to feel vulnerable, you will never leave your comfort zone. When you leave your comfort zone, you grow. You’ll open yourself to new experiences and opportunities. The crucial moment is to take that first step. 

1 Identify your comfort zone

To leave your comfort zone, you need to identify the boundaries of your comfort zone. Your comfort zone is where you feel safe, surrounded by what’s familiar to you. For example, if you don’t feel comfortable giving presentations to a group, you may feel more secure sitting in the audience. If the thought of traveling to a new city scares you, you’ll feel more relaxed watching a show about the place you want to visit.

In your comfort zone, you don’t have to take risks or face challenges. You don’t have anything to cross off your bucket list. Your major challenges and goals are those that you’ve achieved before. After you find the outer boundaries of your comfort zone, you’ll know when you’re about to step outside of it.   

2 Set goals

When you’re ready to leave your comfort zone, set goals, starting with one small goal to get you started. Make sure that it is realistic and challenges you. If you fear public speaking, making a speech in front of 500 people is not a realistic first goal. The gap between where you are now and where you want to be is too wide.

Small steps are easier to achieve. Your goal gives you direction and purpose and can help you stay motivated when things get tough. But you need to first break your goal into manageable steps, and work on just one step at a time. Begin with a well-practiced speech to a picture or toys in a room. They are a captive audience. Join groups such as Toastmasters, which is a supportive group that works on speaking skills. 

3 Face your fears

After you get your goal or goals, you will face the hardest part: facing your fears. Planning is easy. Working on the plan is hard, which is why working on conquering your fears one small step at a time is so important.

Before speaking in front of an audience of strangers, practice speaking in front of supportive peers. By repeatedly putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you will slowly become comfortable. People who speak to an audience of thousands didn’t become professionals at public speaking overnight.

4 Welcome change

Change is scary. It’s why most people take the same route to work or dine at the same restaurants and avoid new types of cuisine. Leaving your comfort zone means embracing the unknown. When you are open-minded, you’ll try new things and explore new places. The results can be exciting.

When you challenge your public speaking skills, you’ll discover a confidence you didn’t know you had. In turn, this confidence will give you the confidence to leave your comfort zone for something new in the future.

5 Surround yourself with supportive people

Facing challenges alone can be overwhelming. Having a support system can make a big difference in your self improvement. These people include friends and family, even coworkers.

When making a presentation at work, you can ask supportive coworkers to give you feedback o your speaking skills. Join a group with similar goals to provide you with an encouraging environment to grow and get advice from people who have been where you are now.  

6 Celebrate your successes

Remember to celebrate your successes at each step, not just when you have accomplished your goal. Each step to achieving your goal is equally important.  

After giving your first speech to five friendly faces, celebrate what you’ve achieved. After you’ve given your first major presentation to a new client, reward yourself.

Key Takeaways

Leaving your comfort zone is not easy. People love to be where they are comfortable because it is safe. But safe doesn’t bring you new experiences or help you grow as a person. You don’t develop new skills by repeating what you’ve done before. To leave your comfort zone, you need to take that first small step.

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Celebrating Women’s Day

International Women’s Day celebrates the economic, social, political, and cultural achievements of women. This day has been observed as early in history as 1909. It’s a day that is celebrated in many countries around the world.

In recognition of the achievements of women in business and women who are entrepreneurs, I’m resharing this blog about why women should be entrepreneurs. Happy reading!

Rating Customer Satisfaction Levels

How important is customer service to you? Is customer service more important when you dine at a restaurant, or more important when you subscribe to an internet service? Customer expectations for good service directly affect how much satisfaction they get from the services they seek.

Some industries have really high customer satisfaction levels. Restaurants and breweries have high rankings. Other industries have low customer service satisfaction levels, such as gas stations and internet service providers.

Take a look at these findings that rate customer satisfaction levels by industry.

Do you agree with the findings? Are there industries in which you have a higher expectation for good customer service?

5 Ways to Get People to Remember You

Let’s make lasting impressions because you’re easy to remember and hard to forget. Whether it’s a social situation, a job interview, or a business situation, you want people to speak with you because they like you and you created a strong initial impression. To help you achieve that goal, here are five ways to get people to remember you.

1 Say the Other Person’s Name

After you meet someone new, say their name during your conversation as soon as possible. Repeat their name at the end, closing with, “It was nice meeting you, (name).” People like to be remembered, and if you make an effort to remember this person, they are more likely to remember you as well.

2 Give a Gift

When someone gives you something, you feel obligated to give them something in return. This is the Law of Reciprocity. You see this often when you go shopping. A staff member gives out free food samples, increasing the chances that the shopper will reciprocate by buying an item from the store. Similarly, when you open the door for someone, buy a co-worker a coffee, or share useful information (like telling someone about a 2-for-1 deal you heard about), that person will view you more positively.

3 Be Vulnerable

One way to get people to remember you is to be vulnerable. When you make mistakes, others see you as more human and relatable. When you meet someone for the first time, share a quick anecdote about an embarrassing moment. For example, share how you ate the spicy green wasabi because you thought it was mint ice cream. People like people they can relate to.

4 Share an Insight

People remember stories. If you have a name that is difficult to remember, an anecdote about your name makes it easier to recall. Something catchy is as simple as an adjective + name: smart Sam or adventurous Alex. Then they will remember your name and something about your personality.

5 Radiate Positive Energy

People associate you with what you say. If you complain a lot about the news, the weather, or other people, you may be perceived as negative. If you compliment others and speak positively about people, places, and events, others will associate you with this optimism. Make positive energy your brand, and that is what people will remember about you.

Key Takeaways

Sometimes our first interaction with someone is brief. To create a lasting impact, try one of these five techniques to make yourself more memorable. As the saying goes, you have one chance to make a lasting impression.

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Self-Care Tips Based on Your Personality Type

We’re updating a previously published blog about self-care during quarantine and the pandemic. Now, with rising prices and inflation, self-care is just as important. All around us, we are facing the rising costs of everything, from food to household items, and big-ticket items that are further out of reach, such as vacations and housing. You deserve a break from the everyday stresses of life to relax and de-stress. You need some self-care by personality type.

Why self-care by personality type? Some people by nature feel that taking a break is a sign of laziness, while others are concerned about how their self-care impacts the people around them. To figure out which self-care routine is best for you, let’s look at which personality type you are, then what type of self-care is best for you.

Self-Driven High Achiever

The self-driven hard worker runs on never-ending, rechargeable batteries. They will forget to eat while they pursue a goal for the day and wave off sleep to get a head start on their next goal. These people are leader types who like to get straight to the point in a conversation because they don’t have time to waste while they pursue their next achievement. 

The high achiever enjoys the finer things in life, desiring a lifestyle of luxury and wealth as an ultimate goal. They are also drawn to successful people and want to be like the successful people they admire. If they are on vacation or playing a game or sport, they tend to be competitive and need to set an objective for the activity. They can be extremely focused.

Taking a moment for self-care is most challenging for the self-driven, high achiever. They will ask questions such as, “How does watching this movie help me reach my goals?” Or, “If I take a walk now, I could get some fresh air and use that time to brainstorm what I need to do for my project! What a great use of time!”

Unfortunately, these hard workers could burn out and suffer from health and relationship problems. They need to take a much-needed break to eat a proper meal and spend time with friends or family. Having a little fun will not result in disaster or an episode of laziness, which is difficult for them to accept.

Devoted Humanitarian

The humanitarian puts friends and family first. Their objectives in life and career revolve around what they can do for the people they care about and humankind in general. They tend to be shy, quiet, risk-averse introverts.

They will work harder if it means their paycheck will cover the cost of hockey practice and uniforms for their child, or ensure that their parents have a nicer place to live. They will gladly contribute funds or their time for a cause, such as rescuing a stray dog. They tend to be selfless.

Self-care can be a challenge for these humanitarians. They are so focused on giving and caring for others that they sacrifice their own time, well-being, or finances for another person. They need to try to put themselves first occasionally to avoid burnout.

Instead of taking on more housework, for example, they should take the day off themselves and not feel guilty about it. Even if family members don’t show appreciation for what a humanitarian does, these selfless types can give themselves a well-deserved time off.

Detail-Oriented Analyst

Logical and systematic describes people with this personality type. They tend to overanalyze and are critical of many aspects of their lives. Unlike the high achiever or enthusiast, who will take risks, the analyst needs to know all the facts up front before making a decision. 

They love details and keep meticulous records. They can be very tidy and organized and they feel safest when they can anticipate their future. If you want to know the pros and cons of a big decision, the analyst can advise you.

Detail-oriented analysts will take the time to pamper themselves or take a vacation if they know that everything is under control and carefully planned out. They will take the night off after planning out their day for tomorrow. They will try out a new spa treatment or yoga class if they have researched it first for health benefits, pricing, and activities.

You can count on the analyst to thoroughly research your vacation destination, to plan out activities, schedules, and prices. It may intimidate them a bit at first but encourage an analyst to leap into something new without knowing what they are getting into. Ask them to join you for a night about town and tell them your destination will be a pleasant surprise. A little adventure can be fun!

Big-Picture Enthusiast

The big-picture enthusiast is highly social and loves being around people. They are the life of the party and the team member whom coworkers consider most amicable. However, they are sloppy with details and struggle to stay focused, especially if a task isn’t fun. Their biggest motivator is fun. Suggest something exciting and they will enthusiastically jump in and try it out, often without weighing the consequences.

Enthusiasts enjoy life, but they too need time for self-care. They need to set goals and check in to make sure that these goals are achieved. Did they reach their income goal for the month? Did they complete all the steps to get some important paperwork started? Otherwise, their disorganization and lack of focus could result in stress or disaster down the road.

Self-care includes checking in and making sure they’ve done all the steps needed if they want to buy a house. Or if they want to get from their current job to their ultimate career goal. Self-care includes having serious conversations with their significant other and asking if the relationship is healthy or if there are issues they need to deal with.

Taking the time to ground themselves in these less exciting aspects of life is important. Otherwise, enthusiasts may find themselves missing out on important deadlines or stressed out and dealing with the aftermath of bad decisions because they didn’t do enough research. Enjoying life is good, but everything needs balance.

Key Takeaways

No one is exactly 100 percent one of these personality types. You could be predominately one of these types when you’re working and another when you aren’t. You could be a combination of any of these types, like a combination of multiple flavors. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each type will help you focus on what you can do for your well-being. 

What self-care will you work on this week?

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