I joined John Maxwell’s A Minute with Maxwell a couple days ago to get his “word of the day” emails.
Yesterday’s word was discomfort.
John Maxwell says that you “need to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Jim Rohn used to say “You need to do the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable.”
We all know what our comfort zone is and we like to stay there. It’s safe in our comfort zone.
We don’t grow when we stay in our comfort zone though, especially when it comes to our network marketing business. For most of us, if we stayed in our comfort zone then we probably wouldn’t have even joined a network marketing company.
The problem is, once someone joins a network marketing business, the fear of being outside of their comfort zone kicks up, and they jump back inside. They will never do another thing with their new business other than maybe use the product once or twice.
In order to make something of our network marketing business we have to be willing, if not eager, to step outside of our comfort zone.
In my corporate life I was a software developer where I could safely work with just a computer and sometimes interact with other introverted software developers. That was my comfort zone. I didn’t have to do much with other people.
Then I got sick of corporate life and decided to go to massage school. This was not a small step out of my comfort zone. It was a flying leap out of my comfort zone. I forced myself into a situation where I not only had to interact with other people, I had to touch them and develop an energetic connection with them for a little while.
I’ve always been one of those people more afraid of public speaking than of death.
My first step with my network marketing business was starting a blog similar to this one. That was another step outside of my comfort zone. While not exactly public speaking, it is a step in that direction. I get to write in isolation but once I click the Publish button, it is out there for everyone in the world to see.
I had another opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and face my fear of public speaking recently. I attended a big convention for my network marketing company in Orlando, FL a few weeks ago. I’ve written several other posts about it. During one of the breakout sessions I was asked to talk a little bit about what I am doing with my blog.
I think the room was set up for 100 people, so there were probably 70 people there that I talked to, including the VP of sales from the corporate office. I didn’t feel all that uncomfortable, probably because I was talking about something that I was very comfortable with.
Maybe that is the trick to dealing with the discomfort of being outside your comfort zone. There is some element of comfort in everything that you are likely to do. Find that element of comfort and use it to help you become comfortable with the rest of it.
Wayne Woodworth
