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Personal Advancement

Get out of your comfort zone

The dictionary may define risk as a "hazard or dangerous chance," but for performance consultant Dr. Tom Olson, taking a risk is about getting out of your comfort zone. After all, he reasons, if you're going to walk on water, you have to get off the beach.

LINDA WHITE

[ 2006-01-25 ]

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OLSON
Author and consultant

That's the name of a seminar the Calgary-based consultant will bring to the Human Resource Professionals Association of Ontario's annual conference, to be held in Toronto next week. (Visit www.hrpao.org/conf2006 to learn more.)

"My philosophy? Don't tell me why you can't do something. Tell me what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. You're going to have to take a chance or you're not going to get what you want," says Olson, author of Don't Die With Your Helmet On (available at www.onebookbookstore.com).

"The title represents the broader obsession with security that we have. There are all kinds of risks we tend not to take, such as using the good china for fear of breaking it ... We need to get out on the edge a little bit."

Getting out on that edge requires what Olson calls an "internal locus of control."

"People with a strong internal locus of control tend to believe they are in charge, that they control the outcomes in their life and that their own skill, ability and efforts determine the bulk of their experiences," he explains in his book.

If you tend to learn from past experiences and are a calculated risk taker, you've already got what it takes to get out on the edge. You're more likely to be creative, innovative and to initiate activity that makes things happen. You work at developing and taking better advantage of support systems and networks.

If you believe your life is determined by sources outside yourself -- fate, luck, chance or more powerful others -- you've got what Olson calls an "external locus of control."

How can you take charge of your life? Start by recognizing that your life is a product of the choices you've made -- that you're an active participant in the events of your life, not a victim of them.

"Second, accept that, unless you're to the manor born, anything you want you're going to have to get through your own efforts. And third, understand there is a strong direct relationship between the material, emotional and psychological rewards that accrue to you and the risks you take," Olson outlines in his book.

He encourages you to set a goal. Identify what's getting in the way of achieving that goal and develop a plan to achieve it incrementally. "Put yourself in a situation where you can achieve success ... Start achieving your goal part time. If you do it well, you'll realize you've been making decisions that have brought you to this point in your life."

Olson isn't advising you to quit your job, particularly if you've got financial responsibilities. Rather, he believes you can probably accomplish everything you want to inside your current job. Examine all aspects of your life, including career and family, and decide if you're doing what you want and if you're focusing your energies in the right areas.

"Maybe you need a job that gives you more control, is more consistent with your interests or gives you more balance," he says. "Inventory your resources. Do you need to acquire new ones (to achieve your goal)? Perhaps you'll need to go back to school or volunteer in the community to gain those resources. Just to will that to happen, it never will happen."

Don't let the fear of making a mistake keep you from taking a risk. "There's no learning without mistakes. We crashed a lot of airplanes before we got one in the air. Everyone has the right to make a mistake. Just don't make it twice ... If it's not working, assess it and get things back on the rails," Olson says.

"If you're going to take a risk ... there needs to be some reward -- tangible or psychological -- that says there is some payoff. In your career, that could be a pat on the back, a promotion, a salary increase."

Consider best- and worst-case scenarios. "Most of the things we're afraid of aren't going to happen," Olson says. "Ask yourself, 'If I take this chance, take this risk, what's the absolute worst outcome that could happen? What is the best outcome I can imagine?' Usually that far exceeds the worst outcome."

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GO FOR IT!

Dr. Tom Olson, President of T.L. Olson & Associates Inc., a performance consulting firm specializing in performance management and management and employee development, encourages you to get out of your comfort zone.

- Make the routine exciting and the exciting routine.

- Losers choose to lose -- woulda, coulda, shoulda. Don't live your life wondering what could have been.

- Just as success breeds more success, mediocrity breeds more mediocrity.

- Make your job more like self-employment.

- Go to work each day willing to be fired.

- Hang out with successful people.

- If you're perfect, you're not growing.