“Are you wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday?” Maggie had taken until the afternoon to ask the question, but I knew she was thinking that from her puzzled gaze at my frazzled look.
I was wearing the same clothes from the previous day. After all, I had spent the last night at the office trying to create the cover art for an Annual Report.
No big deal, you say?
In 1992, it was quite an undertaking. I had to create the final art for our Annual Report using images from drum-scanned 4×6 film positives copied on cartridges to my daisy-chained Syquest drive. I had to smash together the images (somehow) in Photoshop 1.0 on my Mac IIci computer for a lunch meeting the next day.
I had no idea how to do it, and it had taken me all night to create one cover image composite; the entire process now takes less than five seconds with the click of a button.
But I did it! I figured it out.
When I said, “Yes, I can do it,” the previous day, I did not fully appreciate that that moment would mark the beginning of a career that would involve continuously stepping out of my comfort zone and attempting to do things I had never done before. That night, a mix of fear of losing my job and curiosity about how Photoshop worked fueled me.
It was a completely unknown task, but I had the Photoshop manual and all the time in the world—at least one all-nighter.
You can grow in your chosen profession when you step out of your comfort zone and attempt something new. For me, all roads lead back to a love for learning. When you say, “Yes, I can,” and commit to learning something new, you open the door to all possibilities. Continuous learning is a key to professional growth.
Leaving your comfort zone can also lead to new partnerships and relationships as you learn to work with others and lean on specialists to help you achieve your final goals. Remember, you don’t have to do it all alone.
When you say, “Yes, I can,” you allow yourself to step out of your comfort zone and figure out how to solve problems. Take that leap, and say yes to the unknown. Embrace the challenges that come your way. Cheers!
