5 Ways To Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

In life and at work, orchestrators find themselves in many situations which require them to go beyond their comfort zone. When they look to make a change within the workplace, they sometimes have no choice but to push through that uncomfortable feeling. The growth enablement leaders experience when they move outside their comfort zone can be immense.

Keep reading as we share five ways to become more comfortable being uncomfortable as an enablement orchestrator in a leadership or management role.

1. Take More Risks Outside the Comfort Zone

The only way to get used to being comfortable is to do more activities that push outside the comfort zone. For example, if someone is drifting through their daily life at work and doing activities that don’t challenge them, how will they learn, and how will they help others grow? By putting themselves through the experience of doing something uncomfortable, their confidence to tackle new tasks will continue to increase. In the future, they will be more willing to try a task that in the past would have made them feel uncomfortable. Orchestrators often find themselves saying “yes” to anything they can do on top of their existing job title or role by exploring new possibilities they see with sales and customers. Success as an orchestrator usually involves living outside the comfort zone and orchestrators must get used to that reality.

2. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

One of the reasons so many enablement leaders struggle to try something new in their role is due to professional comparison. Their challenge? Looking to others and comparing activities to them actually focuses on the rearview mirror. It’s more normal for people to do what they have always done. If that’s the case, then it’s not a good idea to compare one’s action to theirs. Orchestrators who want to make a change in their career, need to focus on their own goals and the goals of the team and company they’re helping to grow. Just because something is easy for someone, does not mean it’s easy for everyone. What is inside one person’s comfort zone, may actually be completely outside of someone else’s comfort zone. The same is true in reverse, so enablement leaders must keep this in mind when they are taking on a new challenge. Everyone is at a different stage in their skill and understanding, so focusing energy on what is new and what it takes to get something new working can help embrace change and growth.

3. Take Small Steps Each Day To Get Outside the Comfort Zone

Enablement orchestrators don’t have to push themselves to the extreme when starting to move outside their comfort zone. That often leads to a lot of anxiety and frustration. It’s better to take small steps each day to challenge existing biases and perspectives while also getting more comfortable being uncomfortable. When enablement leaders and team members expose themselves to new situations constantly, eventually it becomes less of a shock to take on a different challenge. Especially in today’s fast-moving environment. As an enablement leader, taking one step every day towards being the best leader you possibly could be, over time, can make a huge change in your life. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and enablement leaders can’t tackle every potential sales challenge in one week either. So, make a plan, and be intentional.

4. Work Alongside a Colleague

Enablement leaders don’t have to take on every challenge alone, no matter how high up they are within a company. It’s important to find another leader within the organization who is also looking to grow and make changes within their business. Enablement orchestrators can build a “coalition of the willing” and work together to try new things and support each other during the process. It’s so much easier to take on challenges with someone who has built trust and who has the shared experience of doing something new. Enablement leaders can also encourage the team to embrace change more and push them to take on new tasks each day. When everyone is in the same situation and feels out of their comfort zone, they’ll soon find that they feel some sense of normality when working together, so long as they stay focused on the shared goal.

5. Acknowledge Improvements Outside the Comfort Zone

When enablement leaders and team members first start pushing through their comfort zone, they will notice improvements may only be very small to start with. However, the more often they sit down and reflect on their progress and incremental achievements, the further they will notice they have progressed in this time. As an orchestrator, take the time to journal for five to ten minutes about the changes you’ve made and the tasks you undertook that week. Those in a fast-moving enablement role should make a note when they began to feel uncomfortable. Over the next few weeks and months, they will soon see a huge shift in their resiliency and will notice that they have started to embrace change and uncertainty much more.

By following these five steps, enablement leaders can start to push themselves out of their comfort zone more regularly. Orchestrators must learn to not be afraid to make changes in life and career, or they’ll find they never progress from where they are now, to where things need to be. It can be so tempting to just drift on by at the current level of management, but if enablement leaders want to make positive change in their organization and their career, they must take control of their destiny — and that means embracing a new comfort zone. This is where the magic happens. The sooner enablement leaders start to challenge themselves and take more risks at work, the more likely they will get to where they want to be by the end of the month, quarter, and year.