The first step to being successful is stepping out of your comfort zone- and that means being uncomfortable
As the new year is well on its way, a time of change is upon us. It’s visible in the leaves as they shift colors and fall off trees, in fashion, as the shorts and tank tops of summer are traded for coats and boots, and as some forge ahead into the New Year, resolutions in hand.
Some students are graduating and going out into the real world, looking for real jobs. Some are making a switch, whether it be to a new field or new company. And some are stuck in their routines, while others are breaking them. Did these mentions leave you with an unpleasant picture in your head? When you think about leaving your current job, changing your everyday routine, or for you college students, graduating, did you instantly dig your heels in and resist the idea of this happening in your life?
Unstick Yourself
Stop where you are, unstick your feet, and charge out into that uncertain feeling. Even if it’s in regards to small things, a little bit of discomfort goes a long way in personal and professional development. So while I’m not necessarily telling you to quit your job, I’m telling you to take more leaps and bounds in the workplace. Pushing yourself to create a new project, to tackle it from a different angle, improves your creativity, performance, and improves your learning abilities. Check out this Forbes article on Why Feeling Uncomfortable is the Key to Success.
To the YPs in the room
This is an especially terrible idea to young professionals. Why would you want to be anxious, aren’t you already having to leave the place that has housed you for the last four years? To realize the ‘why’ behind accepting anxiousness, take a real quick step back to your first day of college.
Remember that moment when your parents left, and you had to go to your dorm room, where your roommate, a complete stranger, was waiting for you? And after that you had to go to your first class full of more people you didn’t know, with a professor you also didn’t know? Then you went to the dining hall, and once again, you were left in a sea of unfamiliar faces?
When you think back to that time, would you have gotten into the car with your parents and made them take you home instead of facing all of those things? No, because if you had you wouldn’t have met any of the people in your life right now, you wouldn’t have earned your degree, and you wouldn’t be graduating.
Think of this in regards to applying for your first ‘big kid job.’ Putting yourself out there is going to feel uncomfortable. Interviewing at a completely unfamiliar place is going to feel strange. Rejection is going to hurt. Even after you find your place, you’ll still feel those nerves on the job. Everyday when you go into your office, for at least the first year, you’ll probably feel as though you’re doing something wrong. You’ll question every decision you make.
But eventually, that feeling will go away. And that first application day will feel just like your first day of college. Murky, unclear, awkward, but vitally important.
It's Not Going to Be Instantly Easy
The best thing for yourself is to go into the job search knowing that it’s not going to be instantly easy, you won’t simply just feel like you ‘fit.’ You won’t be the only one, though. And in a competitive job field, where you have the same qualifications as the next person, there is one thing that everyone else can’t have, and that’s your personality. Having this comfort level is something that employers notice, and yet another way to make you successful as you tread in the unfamiliar water that is the job market.
