Today I’d like to share with you this brilliantly simple personal development idea: making yourself comfortable.
I would like to talk about two meanings I personally have for this saying in a personal development context.
Productivity
Feeling comfortable about doing something is definitely one of the key factors shaping up the success of each task of yours. Of course, other factors include having enough knowledge to do the task, being in a right mood and physically capable of producing the necessary result and being motivated enough to get started, but if you start analyzing each of these factors, you can really see how most of them can be easily brought under the definition of being comfortable.
Make yourself comfortable – in productivity it means being in the right place at the right time, having enough time and enough motivation, being sure in the positive outcome and having knowledge to back your ambitions up.
If you feel comfortable about doing something, your productivity will only benefit. If you are comfortable with the challenge, you may not even have enough knowledge to tackle it just yet, but feeling comfortable will support you and motivate you when you most need it.
As you can see, with productivity, making yourself comfortable is an essential step. Without feeling comfortable, you will not be able to reach your productivity potential.
Personal development
Another meaning for making yourself comfortable I have is less obvious. In personal development, one of the major areas of your focus is a constant improvement. Many things you can learn and improve by reading additional materials in books or magazines, asking someone for a good friendly advice, or simply getting out there and interacting with all the people you meet on your way.
But it is also widely known, than in many cases the self-growth isn’t about some knowledge or skill which you can obtain by using a direct approach, but rather a pearl of wisdom you may only acquire by doing or not doing other things.
For example, take something work-related. Let’s say, a project management. Yes, there are many wonderful books on the topic, which teach you useful techniques and planning strategies, but any seasoned project manager will tell you that you can read all the books you want and still not be a good project manager, unless and until you start managing some real projects.
This is a perfect example of what I’m trying to say – your project management skills will grow not from reading books and attending lectures on this subject, but by managing things – starting with single tasks and progressing onto bigger projects.
Take another example: a skill of dealing with stressful situations. Again, reading books on this subject will be of some help, as you will probably be more conscious of your feelings next time you’re stressed about something. But this will only be part of the learning curve. If you start getting stressed about everything on purpose, such a direct approach will not make you a master in dealing with stress.
Why? Because you cannot obtain this experience directly. Instead, you have to make sure you use opportunities which come your way to minimize the stress for both yourself and people around you, and to make note of every personal success of yours in this matter.
Only by seeing yourself handling stressful situations progressively easier and more successful, will you finally obtain a feeling of being comfortable enough dealing with any kind of stress.
Personal development is about making yourself comfortable
Making yourself comfortable in personal development is a constant reminder for me.
It’s a guiding star, which shows me how I should improve myself in each of the areas of interest. And the reason I told you earlier that the meaning of making yourself comfortable in personal development is not very obvious is this: your personal development is about making yourself comfortable, not staying comfortable.
As soon as you’ve made yourself comfortable in anything, it is a sign to move on. It is a definite confirmation that you’ve raised above the previously arranged goals, and that you have to set new ones, where you will feel unsure and uncomfortable at start, and concentrate on making yourself comfortable yet again, thus improving the necessary aspects of your personality.
Does this make sense to you? Making yourself comfortable means taking one small step after another, moving towards a clearly defined goal. The more you work on this goal, the more comfortable you’re going to feel. But the idea of personal development is to always remember that there is no end to your self-growth.
If you were not sure about doing something, and you had concentrated on making yourself comfortable, you would eventually end up with greatly improved skills, newly obtained experience and wisdom, and an urge to find the next step in the same direction, which you’re not comfortable with.
The success formula
That’s it for today. The only thing left is to give you this simple “Make Yourself Comfortable” success formula.
- Concentrate on this step towards your next goal
- Work towards it till it feels natural and comfortable
- Repeat the same process starting with step 1.
Of course, it is stating something obvious, but like any fundamental knowledge in any science, it is no revelation – it is just a summarizing interpretation of the experience and knowledge you already have.