Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren
We often hear people talk about thinking “out of the box” to the point that’s a dull cliché. Getting out of your comfort zone may sound like a cliché too, but it’s worth doing once in a while. Are they the same thing said differently? Perhaps, but the difference is your comfort level. Let’s say that you’ve hit a performance wall you just can’t seem to get around – proposing to use another product that your organization has no experience with is thinking out of the box, but it could still be in your comfort zone if you’ve used it before.
It’s hard to know in advance what you’ll learn from stepping over into the unknown. Sometimes you’ll truly hate it and keep watching the clock, waiting for it to end, other times you’ll become invigorated and passionate about something new.
Looking for ideas? Here are a few:
- Spend a day doing whatever it is that your company does – that might be filling orders or placing cold calls, go see how the money gets earned that pays your salary
- Ask to lead a project next year, or to be the acting manager while your boss is on vacation
- Commit to blogging twice a month for a year
- Give a presentation to your local user group
- If you’re a developer, ask to be a DBA for a week, and DBA’s, go write code for a week
- Spend a week on the sales team
Not sure if those are it? Just wait for the signal at work, when the boss is talking about a new project and you’re trying to slouch down and hide hoping not to get it, that’s the one for you!
It’s hard, it’s not always fun, but do you really want a life with no challenges, only doing the comfortable stuff? Get out of your comfort zone for a couple days and you’ll have a good story or two tell.
To quote from A Christmas Story, I double dog dare you to try it!
