Working Outside your Confort Zone | Stream of Consciousness #2
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Neale Donald Walsch
It has been 2 years since I finished my MSc in Software Engineering and I chose to return to my birth country, France. I thought at the time it would be a step outside my confort zone, since I hadn’t spoke french fluently for least 15 years, I almost lost all contact with my childhood friends, however I still have part of my family in France, so I was and still am just half outside the confort zone.
With all these, I had also forgot, I would start my work life, as a real adult. That part was kind of difficult since the college education system in Portugal and France are a bit different, and well I never had done a interview in my life, I did not know how the “market” worked. How you basically have to pitch yourself to others for them to pick you for a job that you don’t even know if it’s what you want for yourself. Sorry, I digress, that’s another topic all together.
How you basically have to pitch yourself to others for them to pick you for a job that you don’t even know if it’s what you want for yourself.
That was new for me, and I had lost most of my refuges, I was scared and confused. Is it really how this work? Well apparently yeah. (Get ready kids, if we don’t change how things are done until then it will be your turn).
Soon enough, I found a job and I started to understand how the system works, so I thought. The thing with working outside (or half) your confort zone and not having some kind of refuge to go back and recharge it can get overwhelming. Keep in mind I am not including past/buried issues which when you’re feeling down can burst their way in and mess you up and cause you to go back to your confort zone.
I think, in all this mess, we can see some lessons:
Going outside your confort zone is great and it’s how we evolve, but don’t hurt yourself whilst outside (don’t go too far into it).
It’s okay to quit if you’re scared or whatever, what is not okay is to not try again and not learn from it.
Try to find some refuges, you know those things that make you feel safe, being in hustle 24/7 is not that healthy.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, you’re Human after all, you’ll not be always perfect, there will always be people better than you (Who has as much or more insecurities as you)
Be kind, you don’t know the others’s trials.
Here is another stream of consciousness, it was a little bit all over the place but I hope it can help in some way.
