Lessons From The Deck Chair #1: Get Uncomfortable to Grow

Lessons From The Deck Chair #1:
Being Comfortable Is Not Always Productive

When you think of being on a cruise ship, what comes to mind? Maybe having drinks at the bar; onshore excursions; being pampered; or lazy days in a deck chair!

But it's not all that easy. Being on a cruise ship can be confronting. Everyday there are challenges to overcome.

Unless you stay in your stateroom for the entire journey you have to come face-to-face with new experiences, new challenges.

(I know... I know... some of you will be thinking "that's the point of travelling isn't it, to have new experiences"... but stay with me here)

One thing I have reflected on during the cruise is the fact that without stepping up, and stepping out of your comfort zone, you will never get the progress and success you are seeking. You will never learn and never grow.

Sound a bit heavy for deck chair thinking? Let me explain...

If you're not familiar with dinner 'sittings' on cruises, there are often two sittings - an early and a late sitting.

At each sitting it is commonplace for you to be seated with a group of other passengers. Fellow travellers who are completely unknown to you. You may be on a table of eight, with quite a few people you have never seen before - not even onboard.

And... it is expected you will converse with these strangers while dinner is served!

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Think about it... how often would you walk into your favourite restaurant, sit down with a table of strangers, and start talking to them about their day, about their family, and ask "where else have you travelled"?
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But on a cruise you can, and will, do this.

And once you take the leap into engaging with strangers you will be rewarded with learning about them, what they have done, and what you might be able to do too. You will make friends with some, and discover others you don't really mesh with. That's life.

However, you can never go back and undo the learning - you can't remove the experience.

Also, on the ship there is a variety of food available. Food from countries that you would not usually eat - things that seem strange and foreign. But once you try a few dishes you develop a taste for adventure, for trying more new dishes as they are offered.

You start to lose your fear of the unknown. Your boundaries expand. And you learn from that experience.

Life on board also gives you the chance to try activities you would not normally participate in, like playing bingo, which is great fun... even if you are under 75 years of age. It is such a simple, fun game made all the better by an experienced and entertaining caller who announces the numbers with humour and a great sense of comic timing, like "number 8, two fat ladies, number 8".

(I must confess. I developed an early liking for bingo. My parents used to take us to the local bingo games during summer holidays on the NSW central coast.)

The lesson here is that if, in your business or selling activities, you don't try new ways of doing things you will find it very difficult to achieve greater success.

I can tell you now, not everything you try will work out well. Just like trying an unknown dish at the restaurant - you may not like the results every time.

But you learn and move on. Making progress towards your goals.

Staying in your comfort zone may be easy, but it's not always productive.