Don't tell me to get out of my comfort zone

Today, I want to talk about comfort zones, and the reason this came up is because recently I was speaking at a UK startup event and I was talking about how when you're building your business as an introvert, as a human, you should be building your business around you, your likes, you wants and your needs.

 

And some of that was talking about time blocking, setting boundaries, using systems and generally making a list of things that ground you and recharge you. And on the other hand, making a list of things that are deal breakers for you, things that you don't like doing are not good at doing, because those are things that should not be the core of your business that you are building for yourself.

 

And it so happens, as I was giving this talk that there was a comment in the comment section and someone said, but getting out of your comfort zone is where you learn the most. Surely it's better to learn all the things that you don't know so you can become good at them. And so here is my pushback towards that. Yes, you can push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn new things, but you don't have to learn everything.

 

The whole point of being a business owner is that you don't do all the things because you know what you are good at and where your zone of helping people is. And there's a reason why you pay people to be accountants because they're good at that. You, as a business owner might need to just know a general idea of what your accounting should look like. But you are not an accountant and might not file your own taxes depending on which country you're in.

 

But in general, that is not something that is in your zone of expertise.

 

So while, yes, get out of your comfort zone can be good to a certain degree, but not if it is at the detriment of your business. So if this means that you are learning how to do email marketing, for example, but you don't like writing, then that's probably to the detriment of your business because you could be spending two, four, six, eight, 10 hours on this email marketing that you don't enjoy and are not good at when you could be spending those two, four, six, eight, 10 hours with your clients providing excellent service doing what you do best.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not totally against get out of your comfort zone. But it is one of those phrases that gets tossed around a lot, especially when we're talking to introvert entrepreneurs or even just introverts in general in regards to networking or public speaking or talking to people on the phone, cold calling.

 

A lot of the time you will find and I'm generalizing here, extroverts very much like what do you just need to get out of your comfort zone and do blah, blah, blah, or even people who just don't necessarily have an understanding of what introversion means to you might say, well, just get out of your comfort zone and do this, that and the other. We are all individual. We all have things that we like to do and don't like to do.

 

That is just life. We also have things that we are good at, things that we are not good at. That is just life telling people to oh well, just suck it up and get out of your comfort zone isn't supportive and isn't constructive. A different way of going about that conversation is finding out. OK, so you don't like networking. What is it about networking that you don't enjoy? Is a specific type of networking? Is it that you don't like going to a new venue?

 

Is it that you don't like talking to people and then drilling down to find out what exactly it is specifically about networking that that person doesn't like, and then coming up with finding out if it's something that's important to them and they want to do, and then coming up with a solution together, working with them on what it would take to make that happen in that thing a reality. Is it going with somebody else? Is it only doing networking events from where I mean now from home, but only doing networking events that apply to certain topics, maybe networking events that are not business related, and then you just grow your friendships, which will help grow your business.

 

That is a supportive way of helping someone get out of their comfort zone. But just telling someone you should get out of your comfort zone doesn't do it. Thank you for listening. This is janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.