Are You Challenging Yourself?
This is a question I will be asking our team in an upcoming meeting. Are you challenging yourself? I anticipate most of the team will say they are but that’s because we are fortunate to be experiencing growth so we are busy and taking on more responsibilities than before. But being busy due to external forces is not the same as challenging yourself. They are two very different things.
It may seem “unfair” (a word I seldom use) to ask this question at a time when we are busy but one of my responsibilities is to make sure we are prepared for what’s next, not what we are going through now. The question comes from reflecting on this very question to see if I was challenging myself as change occurred. My conclusion, I could be challenging myself more.
Am I preparing myself and our team for what is next? Am pushing the limits of my comfort zone or do I look for something I am comfortable with that I can check off my list? We will almost always do what is easiest. Yale lecturer, Dr. Zoe Chance was quoted in a recent article:
“One of my biggest takeaways from doing research in behavioral economics is that the single best predictor of behavior is ease, more than price, or quality, or comfort, or desire, or satisfaction. Overall, the easier something is to do, the more likely people are to do it”.
If the majority of people will innately do what is easiest then those of us who challenge ourselves will be in a better position to succeed. We have to take the path of most resistance if we want to continue to grow. It’s not supposed to be easy.
As I often remind our team, “what got us here won’t get us to the next level”. The challenge will not end. I need to continue to ask myself and those I lead if we are challenging ourselves to achieve our goals.