Remember my last post about feeling like a refurbished vacuum cleaner?
Well, that was me, last week, getting home from a conference.

Not just attending a conference mind you (oh, no no) instead, I had volunteered to be head of logistics for the whole conference which included:

Of course, I loved it. Give me a spreadsheet, a checklist, a walkie-talkie, and a little bit of bedlam, I'm having the time of my life.

It just so happened that this conference was also the first time I had been chosen as a Speaker, so on top of all of this, I was also responsible for putting together and delivering a talk for the very first time.

Was I nervous? Of course.
Did I practice and try to get constructive feedback - a lot?
Indeed - with real people (some of whom are reading right now - thank you!) and with AI.

Did I think:

“Wow, I am really breaking out of my comfort zone by doing this!”

Well……….. No.
Not at all.

I've realized over the years that we have a tendency to outsource our definition of “Comfort Zones” to stereotypes. To me, the stereotype was that image of a knowledgeable public speaker, confidently striding on stage and capturing the audience with their eloquence and expertise.

However, when it was my time to present, I didn’t feel like it was a huge, game-changing activity. It felt like a very rational and logical next step for me, the brand I’m building, and my professional journey.

I was still nervous, but this was not the hardest moment of the conference. Oh no.

For me, one of the most uncomfortable moments of the entire conference involved me sending a text. I needed to ask a question in a 100 person, extremely active group chat.

Not a stage. Not a room full of people. Not introducing myself to someone new.

Just a message box with a lot of people in it.

It took me about 5 minutes to draft the ONE SENTENCE question I needed to send out. After sending, I was completely useless for about 20 minutes as I monitored not only the people who answered me, but any inside joke, reference or emoji relating back to my comment.

Additionally, I also had to send out all the announcements for the event -
“Breakfast is being served in the Main Hall”
“Lost and Found is at the Registration Desk!”
“Don’t forget to Vote for your Favourite Speaker”
(yes, I only use Canadian spelling even though it’s a U.S. based conference)

Same palm sweating, nerve wracking response. For the first half of the announcements, I sent them out under a different organizer’s name.
(More people know who he is, and he said it was fine.)

By the end of the event, the messages were going out under my name.

Objectively, neither of these things were a big deal.

Nobody was judging me.

Nobody was keeping score.

Nothing bad would have happened if I got a sentence wrong.

But that's the funny thing about comfort zones. They're rarely logical.

They're usually hiding in very ordinary places.

When we talk about getting out of our comfort zones, we tend to picture dramatic things.

Taking the trip, changing careers, giving the presentation, starting the business.

Having done these things, I can tell you they are important, but they are not outside my comfort zone anymore.

Accepting the ‘default’ idea of what a comfort zone is stops us from questioning our own edge.

From someone who has never met a microphone she didn’t like, remember that everyone is comfortable with different things.

Some are more visible or socially deemed as ‘harder’, but there are things that you are able to do every day which I would find difficult.

There’s a big difference between:

Versus:

Understanding and defining your own unique and personal comfort zone can help provide a little more clarity on where you could test your edge.

So what’s right outside your comfort zone? What’s one small thing you could try this week to expand your zone (just a bit?)

Let me know!