As I continue to stretch myself in different ways, I realize that there is no place for fear in my development. There have been times that I have been asked to give an important talk or presentation and as I’m being asked to do this, I am ruminating about everything that can go wrong. Other times, there are unreasonable deadlines that I have to meet but nevertheless I am met with the discomfort of fear again.

One day, I sat quietly after being assigned a highly visible project and assessed my feelings. I was anxious, weary and annoyed. In effect, I didn’t really fear the work but I feared the step outside of my comfort zone. Any step out of my comfort zone was a cause for fear and the fear was driven by the change. It was an Ah-ha moment! It wasn’t really the fear that was eating away at me but the change. When I realized that was my issue, I worked feverishly to accept and become comfortable with being coaxed out of my comfort zone regularly.

Go Home Change

People like change when it suits them. They like change when it is the right time, place, and circumstance. Change that you can’t see coming or that is untimely is the kind we loathe and try to fight against.

Things are changing in business, in society and in the workplace constantly- most of which fly under our radar, because it doesn’t impact us. For the change that does impact us, we need to get over it, under it and around it, because there is ultimately no progress without change.

Examples and more examples…

Dunkin Donuts couldn’t have thrived if it didn’t decide to expand and improve its offerings after a decline in sales some years back. Sure you heard about Crumbs closing all of its bakeries, but do you know what change they made that has flown under most people’s radar? They are selling pre-packaged cakes and cupcakes via BJ’s Warehouse.

I’ll give you one more. What happened to Kodak? They ruled the photo film industry for decades. In the boom of digital cameras and even more recent with smartphone cameras they were put out of their misery. Why? They didn’t coax themselves out of their comfort zone early enough to keep up with the changes going on in the marketplace. Even with re-branding they were unable to regain traction because they ultimately feared changing what they had always done.

From these examples, we get clear examples of where the fear of change cripples us in our personal development and further damage the possibilities for your business to realize future successes.

Will you finally let go of your fear of change?