Parent Post
You need to speak
You need to speak in public, but your knees buckle even before you reach the podium. You want to expand your network, but you’d rather swallow nails than make small talk with strangers.
Who wants to feel anxious when you don’t have to?
But the problem, of course, is that these tasks aren’t just unpleasant; they’re also necessary.
How can we as professionals stop building our lives around avoiding these unpleasant, but professionally beneficial, tasks?
Finally, take the plungeIn
Finally, take the plunge
In order to step outside your comfort zone, you have to do it, even if it’s uncomfortable. Put mechanisms in place that will force you to dive in, and you might discover that what you initially feared isn’t as bad as you thought.
Start with small steps.
Instead of jumping right into speaking at an industry event, sign up for a public speaking class.
In the end, even
In the end, even though we might feel powerless in situations outside our comfort zone, we have more power than we think.
So, give it a go. Be honest with yourself, make the behavior your own, and take the plunge.
First, be honest with
First, be honest with yourself.
Take an inventory of the excuses you tend to make about avoiding situations outside your comfort zone and ask yourself if they are truly legitimate.
The answer isn’t always clear, but you’ll never be able to overcome inaction without being honest about your motives in the first place.
Then, make the behavior
Then, make the behavior your own
You might have a hard time making small talk generally, but find it easier if the topic is something you know a lot about.
Recognize these opportunities and take advantage — don’t chalk this variability up to randomness.
We can often find a way to tweak what we have to do to make it palatable enough to perform by sculpting situations in a way that minimizes discomfort.
