Where and when are you most comfortable?
Easy question. Easy answer: 5:30 a.m. in our CrossFit box, surrounded by like-minded athletes and friends. Our fears may creep in but we can conquer them. Even during a brutal hero WOD, there is no place we would rather be.
Where and when are you least comfortable?
Assume it’s somewhere, sometime outside the gym, with people outside your typical group of fellow CrossFitters. It probably involves some sort of break in our well-structured routine, something even more uncomfortable than a sub-three “Fran”.
Stew Friedman is founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School’s Work/Life Integration Project, and author of Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life. Friedman writes, “Comfort zones are really the perfect opposite of risks. They are the decisions and ways of doing things that have the least risks, the least unknowns and are easy to do…These are bad for leaders and a leader should never let these comfort zones dominate them.” You can read more on the Harvard Business Review site (a site we love)
Placing yourself in new or uncomfortable situations can have tangible benefits for your business.
- Not everyone who walks through your door shares your background or interests.
- Fear is a huge factor for people just starting out and empathy is the best way to connect with newcomers.
- Your interaction with diverse groups can help grow your audience and possibly customer base.
For some of us, travel to a different country is anxiety provoking; for others, it’s simply getting on the plane. The majority of Americans rate their top fear as public speaking. We know many CrossFitters who categorically refuse to try yoga, let alone a meditation class. But we want you to do just that: step out of your box and out of your comfort zone to try something new.
Need some more specific ideas?
- Devote an entire Saturday afternoon to balancing your books
- Give a talk to your local Rotary Club
- Volunteer to babysit your neighbors’ kids for a few hours…okay…one hour
- Keep a journal (non-WOD related!) for one month
- Call no less than five insurance companies to compare rates
- Take a golf lesson with strangers and stay for the social hour
- Apologize to someone in person for something they may have long ago forgotten
- Spend two hours at a senior center or preschool (whichever seems scariest)
Your assignment this week, should you choose to accept it, is to do one thing that, for you, is a real struggle outside the gym. Share with us what you chose to do, how it went, what you learned about yourself.