To succeed in your chosen endeavor usually requires pushing at the edges. Take on challenges that are a bit beyond your experience, talent and comfort zone.
Those who can successfully negotiate at the edges of their comfort zone are the most likely to maximize their potential.
Your comfort zone is a circle of familiarity. It may be an activity, a group of people or a geographic area. It's where you feel at ease and unchallenged. We all need to recede into our comfort zone at times. This is where we recharge.
But if you live only in your comfort zone, you will never discover your maximum potential. To succeed, you must leave the safety and familiarity of your comfort zone.
Teach yourself to find comfort in the uncomfortable - learn to live beyond the borders of your comfort zone.
Sure, it may cause disorientation, confusion, and maybe even panic. But here's the key: Once you understand these feelings are normal and become acclimated to the sensation of unsteady footing, you are able to extend your comfort zone even further. You can live with the discomfort!
In Professor Mihaly Cziksentikmihaly's fantastic book Flow, he explains when people are truly at their happiest. And it's not while in their comfort zone.
Professor Cziksentikmihaly studied 50,000 people during a period of 10 years and tried to hone in on when they were happiest. He discovered it was while they were challenged – when they were just a bit beyond their comfort zone.
He called the experience of living at the edge of your comfort zone 'flow'.
When in a state of 'flow,' people lose track of time, they don't hear the sirens outside, they forget to eat. But flow doesn't exist in the comfort zone – but rather just beyond it.
Thus, you must acclimate yourself with the uncomfortable.
"People in a state of flow are at their happiest – they are challenged just beyond their normal skills, they lose track of time and feel a state of inner contentment." - Mihaly Cziksentikmihaly, Flow
Read more about success, or check out the work-in-progress book 'Street Smarts 101: Lessons Textbooks Miss.'
Click here to learn more about the book The Skinny On Success.
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