Pushing the Envelope in Business: Stepping out of Your Comfort Zone

Richard Branson recently wrote an article on LinkedIn on how growth happens when you step out of your comfort zone. He mentioned how with the help of his mother as a child and in his youth, he grew comfortable with dealing with facing uncomfortable situations, which contributed immensely to his success as a business man.

He aptly described the cause and effect of taking on new challenges when he said: “Humans are creatures of habit. We build our lives on patterns of thought, emotions and behaviour. Unfortunately for many people these patterns lead to complacency, which impedes growth. If we set ourselves challenges we can bolster our mental, emotional and physical strength.”

It’s true! Because outside of your comfort zone is where all the magic happens. Though business undertakings are filled with risks, as small business owners, it is important to resist falling into a lax mental state, that is, that low risk area where we are just fine performing the same routine activities every day. How else can we grow if we do not push the envelope, and test our mental limits?

Running a business obligates small business owners to make tough decisions, and take up tough responsibilities. Regardless, when business owners are caught between a rock and a hard place, they may think: “is it not better to stick with things that we know?” But no one takes big leaps without the discomfort of uncertainty and fear. 

As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

And to put it out there, predictability and routine is a good thing in some cases. It shows the consistency in your business growth, which can help, among other things, facilitate raising money for your business because investors or bankers can tell where your business is heading, and make projections. 

Nevertheless, the comfort zone is an enemy of human potential, so if you have been in the same place for a while in your business, here are other benefits you gain from stepping out:

You grow: When business owners leave their comfort zone, they create opportunities to grow through experiences they encounter along the journey. It could be new skills acquired, new relationships with people -- established or existing ones -- who help make connections we need to support our business goals. As a result we are empowered and more willing to break fresh grounds.

Better performance: Engaging in new activities makes us anxious. But business owners can use this to their advantage because there is research that an optimal level of anxiety can make one focus and perform better. So anxiety is not bad all the time. Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained. You might never know if you do not take the chance, in spite of your reservations.

More comfort: Ironically, when business owners step out of their comfort zones and take risks, they gain another sort of comfort – expanding capabilities. The path of risk-taking creates learning opportunities, for instance, lessons derived from hits and misses when building a new factory, or investing in a new line of agricultural products, or creating a new line of cakes with experimental flavours. It is most likely that you will stumble and make mistakes, but with that comes improvement, and with improvement comes expertise, and that is growth.

So whatever new ideas small business owners have pushed aside to grow their businesses, they should always remember that by stepping out of our comfort zones, they raise the stakes, and the biggest competition that they have is themselves.

What do you do to step out of your comfort zone?