Hat Tip: Tim Ferriss
Distinctions matter...they matter a lot. When stress is discussed we usually mean chronic stress. The stuff that grinds us down, has long term psychological and physiological repercussions.
So what?
There's a good type of stress. It's acute, it's short term and it is the stuff that makes you move to the next level...always. The problem is when we try to avoid ALL stress. That would be like trying to avoid ALL water because some is polluted.
Seek out acute stress. Seek out the situations that require you to bring a great bit of focus, skill and creativity. Not constantly (that would turn things into chronic stress), but neither do you want to build a business where you're only in your comfort zone.
Your comfort zone is a great place to regroup, reconsolidate, build and prepare for another burst of growth and creativity. This is the place where you have NO chronic stress. Work hard to eliminate all the little things that bring such stress. But DO NOT stay here for extended periods of time...weeks or even days on end. Venture out into something requires you to fully show up again. This is outside the comfort zone. But this is short term.
- Meet up with someone new.
- Test out a new process or campaign.
- Experiment with a new resource.
- Get yourself into a situation where you have to CLEARLY share a new idea.
- Work with someone a little bit out of your league.
- Add something to your offerings that's a little bit tougher to deliver.
- Reduce the time to delivery of something by 25% so you have to creatively come up with short cuts and efficiencies.
Then, come back to your comfort zone to assess and prepare for another round.