The Stop Doing List. Malouf Matt

different zones.

Figure 1.1 the comfort, learning and panic zones

      The comfort zone

      We have all heard the term 'comfort zone' used in business in some way or another. It is where many business owners operate from. Put simply, it's where our natural skills and abilities lie. For many business owners, their comfort zone is filled with big lists of what they need to do, which tend to be lower value tasks that have high urgency. When I first start working with a business owner their comfort zone rarely consists of focusing on tasks that will move them towards their goals faster.

      It is important to note that if you choose to spend the majority (if not all) of your time in the comfort zone you will make little progress, if any. This is because your comfort zone consists of things you can already do quite easily. You are unable to learn and build new skills in the comfort zone.

      The panic zone

      Quite often the people I work with make a decision to jump out of their comfort zone to move towards their goals. This is often after reading a book, attending a seminar or hearing someone inspiring that fires them up. Their challenge is they jump so far out of their comfort zone that they become stressed, anxious and even overwhelmed, which often leads to inactivity (the opposite of what they are trying to achieve!). We refer to this as the panic zone. When you are in the panic zone every activity or task feels tough and unachieveable. You will find yourself in a state of confusion or panic and feeling so uncomfortable that achieving the tasks is near impossible.

      Like the comfort zone, you can't make progress from the panic zone. I find a lot of business owners enter the panic zone when they take on too many new tasks or projects. Your goals and dreams will not be realised from the panic zone.

      The learning zone

      The learning zone is the zone between the comfort zone and the panic zone. This is where real progress is made. The learning zone is where new skills are learned and mastered. It is where you will gather forward momentum towards your goals and often see great revenue and profit improvements in your business.

      To be honest, while the learning zone is the more appropriate name for this zone, I personally like to call it the 'earning' zone. In the earning zone you will feel a little uncomfortable. This is good: growth cannot occur in your comfort zone. The easiest way to explain this is a simple metaphor. If you have ever trained with weights in the gym you will understand that if you choose:

      • easy weights to lift you will make no progress

      • weights that are too heavy you will more than likely injure yourself

      • weights that challenge you to the point where you can safely do 10 repetitions and physically cannot push another one out, you will achieve growth.

      This is the learning zone.

       Identifying the learning zone

      Many business owners don't know where their comfort zone ends and their learning zone begins. Because progress can only be achieved by performing tasks within the learning zone, we must first define the boundaries of this zone. ‘So how do I know which zone I am in?' you may ask.

      Well let's start with your comfort zone. If you don't find yourself challenged and rely largely on habit or past experience, chances are you are working inside your comfort zone. Start to take note of the tasks you naturally choose to do, or tasks that don't stress you out. Please note that you don't want to avoid performing tasks in your comfort zone; in fact, at times it may be beneficial to the business. But you want to avoid spending all of your time in the comfort zone.

      On the opposite end, the panic zone is quite easy to identify. Tasks or activities in the panic zone often create high levels of stress, do not come naturally to you, and are often short-lived because of the amount of ‘pain' they create for you. An example of the panic zone is adults learning to swim. Often the student is stressed and unsure, causing their body to tense right up. This stressed state makes it impossible for them to learn and often causes them to struggle and be unable to stay above the water. It's only when the student begins to relax and understand how to get their body to float that they can begin to learn how to swim.

      So, if we know that in the comfort zone things appear to be predictable or too easy, and the panic zone is characterised by high stress or feeling frantic, the learning zone is easier to define. This growth zone is where we perform optimally and begin to enjoy tasks, putting us in a prime physical and emotional state for both absorbing and retaining information – not too stressed, not too relaxed. Now I'm not saying that it's going to be easy! You will feel a little stretched at times and even bordering on the panic zone. But in my personal experience (and the experience of my clients) the learning zone will return you 10 times your effort if you are persistent. Being able to recognise which zone you are operating in and understanding the physical and emotional corrections required to reach the learning zone results in ongoing progress and personal development.

       Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable

      With the zones continually morphing it can be difficult to remain within the learning zone. You therefore need to embrace being uncomfortable, knowing you are primed for progress in this state.

      When you take on new and challenging tasks, you will notice with repetition they become familiar, transitioning you from the learning zone to the comfort zone. Similarly, tasks once tackled in the panic zone will become more manageable and descend into the learning zone, and so the process continues.

      Implementing the Stop Doing List system might send you into the panic zone if you try and stop everything all at once. You will repeat old behaviours and thought patterns that will cause you to think ‘It's easier if I just keep doing this' or ‘I'll never be able to find someone who can do this as well as I can.'