“We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do”. This quote from one of the pioneers of the self-help movement, Dale Carnegie, marked a major change in how people thought about the future. Up until the 1920s, fate and God’s will were the more common explanations for what would become of us. Psychology studies in the USA began to drive the idea that we could control our futures to a much greater degree than we thought, by controlling our thoughts. Not so remarkable today, but this was a brand new idea back then. The problem though is we still haven’t quite found the escape velocity to blast us out of our self-limiting beliefs about ourselves.
Covid, war in Europe, supply chain chaos, coming recession - in such a scary world, the idea of peaking out from your Comfort Zone and challenging the new doesn’t look so attractive. We may have had the benefit of decades of the self-improvement industry pushing us all to be better and do better, but the reality is we are not purpose bent on discovering our unheralded possibilities. Instead we are searching for security in a very insecure world.
We need to re-immerse ourselves in the world of possibility, to re-read ancient and modern wisdom about our potential. We need to find that escape velocity to project ourselves beyond our Comfort Zone. If we keep doing the same things, in the same way, we will keep getting the same results. Einstein defined insanity as repeating the same things but expecting a different outcome. So staying in our Comfort Zone, but expecting to do better is basically a crazy idea. The problem is how do you get out of your Comfort Zone and find the strength to move forward, especially in this highly uncertain world.
Dale Carnegie came up with an answer that works. Through experimentation, observation and adaption he found ways of challenging people, using bite sized pieces, that would gradually expand their Comfort Zone but not blow it up. The process involved taking practical ideas and getting people to act on them immediately. It also involved providing feedback that was only positive and encouraged people to keep pushing forward. We know it works, because we see the growth in the participants once they come out of their Comfort Zone. See if it will work for you too.
