• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

People Equation

Leadership Development and Career Success Tips

  • About
  • Services
    • Life Story Coaching
    • Business Writing
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact

Friends Don’t Let Friends Stay in Their Comfort Zone

by Jennifer V. Miller

  This weekend I posted the following comment on my personal Facebook page:

 

 

As so often happens with social media, my “posse” rallied to my side, offering lots of encouragement.  One note of encouragement was especially helpful to me. It was sent via private message, but I’ve received permission to anonymously republish it here because I think readers of The People Equation would benefit as well:

My friend said:

I recently succeeded in doing something at work that had never been done in the history of the company and also something that people have said to me for nearly four years would probably never be accomplished. I refused to give in saying that until they told me “No” or “You’re Fired” I would keep plugging away.

There’s more to the story of course, but the lesson learned is that if you don’t go beyond your comfort zone (1) you’ll never grow and (2) you’ll never know what you’re capable of doing.

And the surprising thing will be that when it’s over and done, you will more than likely be saying to yourself that it wasn’t that bad and you’ll be looking to even challenge yourself more the next time.

You’ll be fine. Don’t make me come up there to Michigan and kick your butt!

 

Now how’s that for friendship?! Guess I’ll just go ahead now and move on out of my comfort zone. . .

Jan 13 2011 · Categorized: Personal Effectiveness · Tagged: Change Management, Courage, Social Media

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ben Eubanks says

    January 14, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    Jennifer, I love telling people “everything I know I did wrong the first time.” 🙂 There’s nothing wrong with trying something new/difficult and not getting it perfect the first attempt. I have really been stretched by what I have done in the past year, and I already have this year set up to push me out of my comfort zone and help me to grow professionally.

    Thanks for the reminder!

  2. Jennifer says

    January 14, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Hi, Ben!

    Yes, it’s good to stretch. Which reminds me, I think I saw something about a cool new project that you’re participating in….good luck on that!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Master the people equation.
Elevate your leadership.

Tips for how to make the most of interactions with your boss, peers and colleagues; show up in a way that’s positive and respectful.

Topics

  • Bad Boss Diaries
  • Book Review
  • Business Management
  • Communication
  • Food for Thought Friday
  • Guest Blogger
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Learning
  • Office Politics
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • Social Media
  • Team Effectiveness
  • Training Delivery
  • Weekend Reflections
  • Workplace Issues
  • Zen of Jen

The People Equation blog by Jennifer V. Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Footer

Follow the People Equation

  • LinkedIn
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Statement
  • What’s with the llamas?

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Sign Up

Copyright © 2025 · People Equation