IT is a fact that anytime we do something new we are stepping out of our comfort zone.
Why am I so confident about making this statement? On examination the reason is obvious.
The fact that we are doing something new would suggest that we have never done it before and that is why it is new.
Because it is new it feels strange and that is the feeling we get when we are out of our comfort zone. That strange confused feeling is ‘part of the gig’.
I’m going to use some big words here. It might sound like I’m being facetious, pedantic or somewhat smug in writing what I have written above – I promise you that that is not what I’m about – but sometimes to understand and appreciate something fully we have to break it down into the basics.
Usually when there is serious money involved (i.e. serious money can be won or lost if one does not pay attention to basics!) it tends to focus the mind of mankind in the sense that paying attention to detail can be the absolute difference between success and abject failure.
That is the reason that professional sports people pay huge money and give huge respect to sports psychologists.
These psychologists help these professional sports people to firstly change and then apply the way they think about any particular aspect of their sport.
A classic example of this is the golfer Padraig Harrington. He has put great faith in mind-coach Bob Rotella. Bob has written numerous books like ‘Golf/Life is not a game of perfect’.
To quote Padraig Harrington said that “he had met his long-time sports psychologist Bob Rotella the week of the Honda Classic but only to reassure himself that he was still taking the correct mindset onto the course.”
Padraig Harrington knows that when he is doing something new that feeling strange is part of the process involved. However that does not deter him from persevering.
Yes Harrington has many detractors and he has earned the nickname in the golfing world of ‘Tinkerman’ as he is continuously tinkering with his swing.
He continues to work on his game and attitude and answers his critics with three majors to date. The Honda Classic mentioned above is one his latest successes.
He accepts that ‘strange feeling’ and simply gets on with it. That is what the Buddha meant when he said ‘Concentrate on the process and the results will come’.
The problem is most people give up on the process when they do not get immediate success and cannot accept the strange feeling that comes when they are out of their comfort zone.
As I have said before, success in life is not always about getting the right answers, it is of far more importance to ask the right questions.
So the right question at this stage is ‘where does that strange feeling when we do something new originate from?’
To get to the bottom of it we have to go back to one of my favourite subjects – the origin and evolution of mankind – Yes we have to return to the subject of ‘what make us tick’ as human beings?
I suppose the first priority of man was survival and yes you are correct if you are thinking that that is where this strange feeling originates from.
However to get to the bottom of the plot, I will reveal all in next week’s article when I will be writing about
• Stepping out of our comfort Zone II