Starting a Business Means Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

There was a time in my business career when I lived in one area and worked in another area some 50 miles away. As a result, I was a virtual unknown in the region in which I lived because, for the most part, I was never there. Then one day, step out of your comfort zone while with the same company, the President called me in to ask if I would be interested in a promotion to Regional Manager in the same area in which I had my residence. This was a great opportunity except for a couple of things . One was that I had always been a department head and never really had to go out and glad-hand folks to develop business. The other was that I was unfamiliar with the region where I lived and I knew no one from a business point-of-view. What was I going to do?

One of the first things I realized was that I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone. We all have comfort zones which relate to our immediate environment and the behaviors with which we are comfortable without creating a sense of risk. Stepping out of our comfort zone raises anxiety and stress. In a nutshell, we don't like "stepping out". It makes us uncomfortable. Highly successful persons routinely step outside of their comfort zones to accomplish what they wish. But for most of us who are potentially successful people, stepping out of our comfort zone does not come naturally. We need training and/or experience.

Fortunately, when it comes to training, there are a variety of ways to get such training. One way is to do a Google search to find a wealth of information and sources of training. In my case, I enrolled in a Dale Carnegie course that was being taught locally to managers and sales people. It was one of the best things I have done in business.

Unlike an excellent course step out of your comfort zone like Dale Carnegie which costs money, there are other ways to get training which, if there is any cost at all, it's minimal. One such example is a local chapter of Toastmasters International. This is a great organization that has been around for a longtime with local chapters in nearly every community. They usually meet over breakfast or lunch and although the focus is on public speaking, that is exactly what you need in order to break out of your comfort zone. Do a Google search for Toastmasters. Their website has a lot of great articles and information.