Challenge Yourself:

It’s pretty easy to get comfortable, isn’t it?  Be it at work, or in our personal lives, we as human beings generally choose to take the path of least resistance.  Why wouldn’t we, right? We have the ability to create scenarios, situations and processes in our life that make our day “easier”.  Most of the time this can be a really good thing!  Can you imagine doing everything that we need to do every day without so many of the “shortcuts” we have created?

The Leadership Challenge identifies Behavior #3 as “Seeks out challenging opportunities that test his/her own skills and abilities.”

I think this is why this behavior is so critical to our growth and development as leaders.  Consider the following quote:

Robert Shindell Challenge Yourself

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. -Robert F. Kennedy

We need to challenge ourselves to seek out opportunities to do not what is easy and convenient, but what is hard and difficult.  Because through this we grow and we help others around us to grow as well.

What is one thing, one skill, or one ability that you would like to increase over the next 30 days?  Think about that, then I challenge you to share that with someone you trust and ask them to hold you accountable to challenge yourself to achieve it.

Check out this amazing presentation by Yubing Zhang entitled “Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmN4xOGkxGo

To learn more about me, click here.

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My leadership journey began more than than 25 years ago with The Leadership Challenge, the most trusted source on becoming a better leader.  So far, more than 2 million copies of the book have been published in over in over 20 languages. Based on Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s extensive global research, this life changing approach to leadership and their enduring work is critical to help us navigate the world of work today.  The basic premise is that leadership is a relationship that must be nurtured and, most important, that it can be learned.