In the past I held positions of responsibility and always had others who did the doing things for me. I used to supervise personnel; I tended to be in charge of my own work unit, and my own time. I once attended a job interview where I was asked by members of the interview panel how would I organize and set up a telephone conference. I replied that I would email/telephone the IT guys with dates and times and have them do it. To my horror, I learned that apparently I was the one responsible for this task and would have to arrange this telephone conference myself. Gee that sucked! Needless to say I immediately lost interest in the job (nor did I get it, for some strange reason). Whenever I retell this story I still manage to laugh at my reaction �What, I have to organize what?� Thank goodness for my attitude readjustment! Over the years I�ve had many job and career changes and with each role someone would always be available who I could count on to help me out. Always, without fail! Never having to worry about all that other �stuff� kept me a prisoner of my own comfort zone. There was always someone else who did that �stuff� while I got on with other work I was responsible for, there was always a safety net. Back to the advertising leaflets, I tried, with the help of others to find personnel to do that �stuff� (handing out leaflets while I would be doing something else I was responsible for) for me. I quite simply couldn�t find anyone who was okay with doing �stuff� for me. Then an amazing thing happened. As I was telling my sad and pitiful tale to a friend of mine, my friend cheerfully offered to help out. I was stunned and thought to myself �if my friend is willing to go out on a limb for me, what was my hang up? The hang up was easy to identify. It was the fear of doing something for the first time. It was once again time to step outside my comfort zone. Sigh. After I gave myself a stern silent talking to, like �What on earth is up with you?� �You know you�ve been running away from having to do this that�s why now you have to do this, you need this experience!� �Becoming fearless will set you free!� Reply to self, �easy for you to say!� Once I worked out exactly what my strategy would be in overcoming this fear I became peaceful with a new attitude of �Let�s do this, it�ll be fun and you never know how many nice people I�ll meet today?� and �This is the perfect excuse and trade off to do lunch in town with my friend� Remember back to when you first stepped outside your comfort zone. Maybe you were scared and fearful because you were unaware of what would happen next or you were fearful of being rejected by others of what you had to offer (for example: advertising leaflets)? Now recall the second, third (or more) time you did the same thing. What was your experience like after several times of doing the same thing? My wild assumption is that you learned something new every time and you adjusted your strategies accordingly. Your mind remembers all that you do (whether consciously or unconsciously). The more you do something outside your comfort zone, the easier it will become to adjust to your new comfort zone. Whenever you try on something new know that it does get easier with time and as you continue to learn, grow and as you continue doing, you�ll become an expert before you know it. Michaela Scherr
