Strengths Zone Vs. Comfort Zone
By Steve Gahagen
There is a big difference between living outside one’s strengths zone versus living outside one’s comfort zone. Living outside one’s strength zone is to be continually working in areas that do not leverage one’s strengths, requiring tremendous amounts of energy to be successful. Burnout often results from being in this position. We start living for the weekend.
When we talk about strengths as superhighways or as areas in which we can function with near perfection, it’s tempting to make it sound like working in one’s strengths guarantees a life of ease. That’s not the case.
For one, in order to continue to form our talents into a strength it demands continual practice and learning. Just as an athlete with unusual talents has to strengthen that talent through exercise and practice, so do we. In fact we should always be asking how we could make our strengths even stronger through practice and rigorous training.
The second reason that working in your strengths does not necessarily mean that life is easy is because there are times when we must step out of our comfort zone - step out of the places that are safe for us into something that feels more dangerous or risky. Stepping out of our comfort zone is not the same as stepping out of our strength zone. In fact, in order to grow in life, we usually have to take risks and step out of places where we are comfortable in order for our talents and strengths to thrive. Most growth in life comes out of seasons of difficulty, when we have had to persevere and dig in with the utmost determination. Leveraging our strengths in times of stress can help us emerge victorious and at the same time grow our strengths as a season of ease never could. To grow our strengths and our ability to make a difference in life, we must continually step out of our comfort zones. But of course that is not easy, because in our culture there is a magnetic pull toward what is comfortable.
Questions to consider
Can you think of a time when you were working outside of your strengths? How did you feel?
Can you think of a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone? What happened? How did you grow?
How have you leveraged your strengths when you stepped out of your comfort zones in life?