I talk a lot about the importance of leaving your comfort zone and the growth that can happen when you do. Most of the time I emphasize the BENEFITS of doing so.

Recently I’ve been reminded of how DANGEROUS comfort zones really are when:

• A group of expats got too comfortable navigating the land we live in and found ourselves in a situation we could have avoided.
• My husband witnessed a friend’s motorcycle accident and recognized how comfortable, carefree and careless he has become on his own Harley.
• I visited with an executive that has been in his position so long he is struggling to see how complacent and ineffective he is becoming.

Each scenario caused me to reflect on how winning sports teams lose their edge, how wildly successful businesses stop growing, and how governments and countries rise and fall…

Linger too long in a comfort zone and you risk…

• Feeding pride and starving humility
• Thinking less about “us” and more about “me”
• Encouraging laziness
• Deflecting ownership
• Increasing clutter and decreasing clarity
• Fueling boredom, complacency and carelessness
• Risking accidents and illegal activity
• Sapping joy, slaying purpose, killing vision and inviting chaos

Comfort zones impact:

• Personal lives
• Learning
• Families
• Commitment
• Organizations
• Growth
• Our World
• Peace

Making conscious choices to leave your comfort zone does not mean leaving your commitments it means:

• Intentionally looking for ways to bring “fresh eyes” to every situation
• Turning rocks over and facing anything you find underneath those rocks
• Listening and seeking first to understand
• Learning from the situations you are in
• Challenging yourself to do something new
• Admitting that you don’t have all of the answers
• Asking for help
  

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What are you doing about it?

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