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How often does a lack of confidence hold you back?
You may be familiar with the concept of a comfort zone. It’s that place where you already feel confident. You know exactly what you’re doing. You’re good at stuff. You don’t need to worry about messing up.
But if you only ever live from that place, you will find yourself stuck quite quickly. The world around us moves on and changes regardless of how confident we feel about adapting to it. But if you can step out of your current comfort zone, it will expand and so will your confidence.
So a very useful concept is that of the Stretch Zone. This is the area around the outside our comfort zone, where we do something that we haven’t done before. We stretch ourselves by trying out a new skill or technique, going to a new place, applying for a new job, meeting new people, putting ourselves out there in the world in many different ways.
And it can be a bit scary – understandably so. When we try something new we are not guaranteed to make a success of it. We may try something new and love it. We may try something new and find it uncomfortable.
However, one thing we are guaranteed in the stretch zone is learning. It may be learning a new skill. It may be learning something about ourselves – what we like or don’t like. It may be learning something about other people and how we relate to them.
And if you look at taking a stretch in that way, then you really cannot fail!
An important thing to remember about moving into the stretch zone is just that – it’s a stretch, it involves movement. The only reliable way to build our confidence is to take action. There are plenty of useful techniques and exercises that can help us feel more confident. But at the end of the day you won’t grow your comfort zone until you get out and DO something.
Confidence comes from action – and the right level of action. Beyond the stretch zone lies the panic zone – this is where you have gone too far out of your zone of competence and confidence and your “fight or flight” mechanism kicks in. So if you are facing a big challenge, break it down to small steps, including a step you can do this week – or better still, today!
I took a step out of my comfort zone this week and started recording and sharing videos on Facebook. Here is a quick video that I’ve made for you about how I did it.