...SEM | Stepping Out of Comfort Zones | Leadership and Organizational Behaviors | Zhang Xiaohao 2012213230 | Table of Contents Introduction2 Motivation2 General flow2 Literature review3 Definition of comfort zones3 Exploring the uncertainty4 Defeating the fear of failure5 Stretching the comfort zones6 Real life experiences8 Small circles formed unconsciously8 Risk avoidance due to fear of failure9 Development plan12 Mentally prepared and force to step out12 Proactively step out in new environment12 References13 1. 2. Introduction: Motivation of this paper “Comfort zone” was the first word that came into my mind when I was thinking about the topic of my paper, because I know I am the one who always want to stay in my comfort zones, which may impede my way to become a good leader or a successful person. So, I need to step out of my comfort zones on purpose once in a while, to improve my leadership skills and interpersonal skills. To finish this paper, first, I conducted a wide range of research on internet about “comfort zones” and “leadership”, finding that a lot of people shared the same feeling with me and there are plenty of articles in this specific area. I’ve learned a lot from the literature review stage, and knew more about how the “comfort zones” formed and its impacts. Then I reflected to some real life experiences of myself, further understood the reason why I would like to stay in my comfort zones and the importance...
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...Live the joy of change Introduction Taking the decision of studying abroad implies leaving your family, your friends, and adapting yourself to a new culture and to a new city; but in the end you will live the joy of your new life with new friends, more knowledge, and probably you will get the job of your dreams, or whatever your first purpose of changing was. When we think on change sometimes we think that it must be something painful, and it can be, but we need to learn to postpone our rewards. Change means sacrifice some things to get others even better. And as I already said, although the process of change can be painful and frustrating, the reward can be bigger than this pain. Starting the change is just a matter learning where you must start; people can change their lives if they dare leaving their comfort zone, creating a dream and taking action. I. Create a dream Creating a dream is the first step to start changing your life, and this means that you need to set your first goals. Bird (2012) uses the term 3% to mean that you need set a little goal. He recommends setting a goal that you feel comfortable with, and that you are completely sure you can achieve. In other words, you need little dreams to star your change and then the change will get bigger and bigger as you go on, because if you want to succeed in change realism is an important point; for example, if your goal is to become a CEO of a company, but you have no experience, this goal might not be realistic, or...
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...My Passion Some say that music is a way of speaking from your soul. Some say that music can control the beat of a heart. Hearing my first song, listening to the beat and the lyrics opened my eyes to what I would want to do the rest of my life. I will confess, I put it aside out of doubt and fear. But now that I've matured I understand I shouldn't let those things stop me from my goals and dreams. The art institute contains knowledge and provides hands on experiences for their students. I am very hands on person so that works in my favor! Hands on experiences give you that level of focus to proceed in learning the material. With these experiences I can expand my creativity and just by doing that I can reach my career goals. Secondly this...
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...anything that is related to negative thinking that we create for ourselves, to justify or excuse our own incapacity to keep moving forward. “La vaca simboliza todo aquello que te mantiene atado a la mediocridad. Una vaca puede ser una excusa. Una vaca también puede ser un pensamiento irracional que te paraliza y no te deja actuar.” (Cruz, 2003, p. 8) Under these circumstances, this story may not only be suitable for a specific person, but rather everyone who is willing to take the first step to move away from his or her comfort zone. In fact, this is one of the most difficult decisions. People usually feel very peaceful in their comfort zone. Many of them even does not consider it a problem at all, and this makes one of the biggest “vaca” in any area of a person`s life. “Muchas personas no son conscientes de las vacas que tienen; otras son conscientes de ellas, pero, igual, las siguen cuidando y alimentando, ¿por qué? Por una sencilla razón, porque las vacas nos proveen una zona de comfort, una excusa.” (Cruz, 2003, p. 12) Most of these type of people are always afraid of change. They usually do not like exploring new horizons and taking risks and to face the difficulties of real life experiences. On the other hand, it is essential to transform people`s poor mentality. People should start to work on building their self-esteem with daily actions with themselves and other people around. Increasing their level of self-esteem is the...
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...No Self Confidence - Boost Your Self Respect And Esteem To Move On In Life Having no self confidence affects your life. If you lack or have low confidence levels you can severely restrict what you do in life and the amount you enjoy things. Things become a pain. You can lack esteem and respect. You feel low and find it hard to pick yourself up. Your friends may say pick yourself up, but sometimes things are not so easy as they may think. When you lack or have little self confidence this affects your outlook. What you do. How you approach it. How you do things. What you try. What you leave alone for fear of criticism or fear of failure. Recognize the signs early to start to do something about it. Signs of low confidence No self-confidence - what are the signs? * Worrying about what other people think about them * Taking criticism badly * Uncomfortable in new situations * Unable to cope with things * Unable to handle compliments * Focus on what they do wrong * Being very pessimistic * Uncomfortable in social situations * Small comfort zone * Negative mental attitude * Cannot assert themselves * Feeling inferior or insecure * Lacking respect for themselves Causes What can cause a low level of confidence? * Self sabotage * Trying to be perfect * Stress * Experiencing too much pressure * Affects carried over from childhood * Influences from other people * Influences at work * Day to day interactions...
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...Some say change can be scary, others say embrace it. I used to be afraid of change, of what might force me to escape my comfort zone. Everyone goes through change throughout their lifetime whether it’s wanted or not. For me, change had its biggest impact on my life during my senior year of high school. I was just your average teenage girl, I had the three best friends anyone could ask for, the normal teenage drama, but was not the most confident girl. One event in particular would change my life forever, and it would require me to step out of my comfort zone and take risks. My name is Hanna, and this is my story. I was never one to take chances. It was always my girls and me doing our thing. I could pretty much tell them anything without them judging me. We were a pretty tight circle and never in a million years did I think that would change. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. We gradually drifted apart until we barely spoke anymore. It all began one day when Brooke and I were talking to our friend, Ally, on spare. She was talking about how she liked to visit her friends who were away at school and party with them. She mentioned how she was going down again the upcoming weekend and invited us to go. Brooke, being very outgoing, instantly agreed to go, but I was hesitant. I barely knew the people, and it was most definitely not in my comfort zone. After much convincing from Brooke, I finally caved in and was actually a little excited to go. I never would have thought...
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...“A man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in pursuit of some unknown treasure”. The Alchemist is about how Santiago is having a recurring dream of his personal legend. Then it talks about how he got there and what he went through. In the novel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho the hero's journey reveals that there are many steps and obstacles to pass or get through before reaching your personal legend. There are so many steps and obstacles, you need to prepare for before going to find your personal legend. One of the steps Santiago went through was to leave his home and prepare himself to find his personal legend. He also had to talk to talk to his father before leaving to see if he can get money for his journey....
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...To a 13-year-old teenager in high school, who you are means everything. You are the outfit you decide to wear to school, the way your hair sits on your head, the way you read a passage in class, and the speed at which you walk in the halls. Other students know when you wear the same shirt twice, get a bad and embarrassing haircut, or mispronounce a word while you read a passage aloud, and they will call you out for it. They will comment on the attributes that you are most sensitive about—ones you may not be able to control—making you dread walking in the halls alone. Self-consciousness develops with every move you make and every word you say. High school is the time and place in which kids are unkind and gossip seems like everyone’s main concern. Cruel comments gradually...
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...Threshold experiences in the novels My Antonia and The Age of Innocence In any a piece of literature setting is an essential pillar of narrative construction: it not only includes some factual information about time and place or provides the background in which the events take place, but also has the power to shape the habits and attitudes of their users, or characters. Both Willa Cather in My Antonia and Edith Wharton in The Age of Innocence create the particular narrative texture that implicates some dynamics, i.e. some shifts and changes – on the one hand, the setting of the novels continually changes, and this invariably entails the changing of the characters. Since the setting doesn’t remain static, each time it changes there should be some “turning point”, from which moment on the further development of events becomes completely different. But what exactly this turning point is, what are those “triggers” that help to create this dynamic picture, how can we trace the changes and the molding and development of characters’ personalities, the changes of their identities? The thing is that the authors of both above-mentioned novels create series of “threshold experiences” taking place at the most significant, climatic points in the lives of the protagonists, acting like triggers, indicating some transformations in the outer world of the characters that entail the changes in their inner world as well. These thresholds operate on all levels: separating the interior...
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...Remember growing up and going to carnivals with your parents and begging them to let you go on the bouncy castles and rides? “Mommy! Mommy! Can I please go on the bouncy castle!” and then getting to go and asking again. “Mommy! Mommy! One more time, pretty please!” Well, that was never me when I was growing up. And it was not until last spring when I stepped into a bouncy castle obstacle course for the first time. Think about getting to go on a bouncy castle obstacle course for the first time. You are excited and pumped to see what this new experience will feel like. You wait anxiously in the line to get on that bouncy castle, even better, you get on to race your friend. You are on and you race to see who will win. You or your friend? Just...
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...first of the book discussed, “The E-Myth and America Small Business,” part two illustrates “The Turn Key Revolution: A New View of Business,” part three “Building a Small Business That Works.” This book has elevated and stimulated my mind on the difficulties that a small business deals with challenges and help enhance on management and people skills. The Entrepreneurial Myth, introduce the entrepreneurial seizure which most people don’t realize when their experiencing the seizure. Inside a workers head they ask, what am I doing this for? Why am I working for this guy? “I know as much about this business as he does. If it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t have a business.” In the entrepreneurial seizure you make the assumption of wanting to start your business which is known as a fatal assumption. A fatal interference understands technical work of a business that you have developed and understand the techniques of that business. That technician is forced to operate the business, than do the work on him. When suffering with entrepreneurial seizure a business is not business but a place that is just a job. For example, in the book it states “barber opens a barbershop; technical writer starts a technical writing business.” The Entrepreneur, The Manager, And the Technician, is divided by three types of personalities that can be developed into one person. The three types of...
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...to outings and restaurants we usually pick something the average person would choose; Olive Garden, Chilis, Apple Bee’s, a restaurant in that nature. Nothing extraordinary nor fancy. We go out to a nicer dinner on special occasions but it is not an every weekend thing, because we simply cannot afford dinner that cost $60+ per person on a regular basis. I have decided to observe people in the upper class at an expensive restaurant, my paper will cover observations that I have made, what I have learned, and how my experience has helped me feel more comfortable, and socially conscious. Observations; Comfort level My husband and I decided we would go out to a more expensive dinner so I can make some observations. We decided to go to an upper scale restaurant in Washington Dc, Fogo De Chao. It is a Brazilian steakhouse, where they serve an all you can eat amount of different types of meats. We took a seat at a table where there was a candle in the center of the table they serve your drink in a wine glass they have white cloth napkins perfectly folded on the table. The age group here ranged from mid to late 20’s to upper 50’s. I observed that most of everyone there were very well dressed, you can tell some of the couples were celebrating and others it was no different from their Friday night out to dinner. I looked at their menu and realized the salad bar dinner was $24.95, just for the salad bar where they were serving; salad, different types of cheeses and salamis, olives, rice...
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...I was reading Sunny Side Up,a graphic novel book by Jennifer L. Holm. Sunny Side Up has 224 pages, the pages are mostly pictures and barely any words, so you could finish it a couple days or hours or mixtures, it depends if you read fast or not. According to an Amazon customer they think this is an amazing book, “Absolutely awesome book, although my daughter and I weren't expecting it to be a comic. But I REALLY love how it has flashbacks back to her previous summer and things that happened to her brother, Dale.”I think Sunny Side Up is more for 6th grade and up, because of the Dale, and the grandpas situations and I don’t think those pictures are appropriate for little ones. The protagonist is a girl named Sunny. Sunny is a...
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...they have achieved. There are many employees who sit around expecting life to happen, while others are out there living it. The same can be found in the work force, employees do the bare minimum, and no initiative to go the extra mile. Then these employees expect to be given a promotions or raises. I believe that organization would also benefit by giving these out because if the employees takes the initiative then the organizations would thrive, and the employee would be self-motivate and looking to achieve and ensure that they get that raise, or promotion. 2. The book encourages readers to pay attention to what is happening around them, anticipate change, and look at the opportunities that exist outside their comfort zones. How does this reflect on those workers losing their pension funds? Employees now need to ensure they embrace change as it is more frequent in the current work force If employees had anticipated these changes it is possible that they would not have lost their pension funds or be able to recover quicker. As the book was trying to point out, if you stick to what you know or depend on others, the chances are that the things you depend on are not reliable or unable to provide or even help you in a timely manner. It would be better to up-skill your present skills and learn to rely more on your-self and take the initiative to step out of your comfort...
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...is given to people as a gift when they graduate. Nonetheless, what is so inspiring about this children’s book? Well, it may look like a colourful bedtime story for someone less than four feet tall, but in reality, this poem contains virtually all you’ll ever need to know to make it successfully through life. This poem has so many lifelong lessons that it could easily be compared to any song. Here are some examples: A lyric from the song Anything, “Don’t play with fire...forget that, I can do anything”. The singer is emphasizing that everyone should pursue their dreams. You might counter unexpected challenges, but these obstacles will help you grow and compel you to step out of your comfort zone. Likewise, there will be people who will reprimand every choice you make but you should never let these naysayers waver your ambitions. A quote from the poem,“Waiting around for a Yes or No... Everyone is just waiting”. The author is indicating that people do not like making choices because they presume that one wrong turn will lead to a bitter...
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