Jane Redfern Jones

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” ~Aristotle

Many organisations are slowly starting to realise that if you want engagement, and you want people to be creative and innovative, autonomy is more important than financial reward.

When the profit motive is paramount and it becomes unhinged from the purpose motive bad things can happen. When profit comes first the workforce becomes disillusioned and things start to go wrong. Start treating people like people and recognise that if you want engagement self-direction is better. It will lead to a happier workforce and more creative (and profitable) output.

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Watch this brilliant video. Creativity is so important in education and in helping children lead fulfilling lives. Creativity is often unexpected and exciting. It involves seeing things in new ways and breaking rules. Creativity may result in something radically different. As Sir Ken Robinson says in the video: "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never create anything original."

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” ~ Brian Tracy.

I recently became very frustrated trying to teach some people some very simple IT. It has been frustrating because they had closed minds. They thought that it would be too difficult for them to learn so they didn’t even try.

One of the biggest reasons why people get stuck in reading and discussing things instead of taking action to change their lives for the better is simply that for a while it feels uncomfortable.

But to make real changes in your life you have to step outside your comfort zone.

When you get stuck in your comfort zone then you are closed up. You create barriers that stop you learning and achieving new things. If you want to begin producing different results in your life, you’ll need to step outside your comfort zone and do something different.

The emotions you experience are often a result of what you focus your mind on. Change what you focus on about something and you can change your emotions about that thing. Years ago when I trained in martial arts my instructor would always say to me “there’s no such word as can’t”. He said that as soon as you say you can’t do something then you won’t be able to do it.

For years, the 4-minute mile was considered not merely unreachable but, according to physiologists of the time, dangerous to the health of any athlete who attempted to reach it.

When Roger Bannister crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, he broke through a psychological barrier as well.

John Landy, considered one of the great milers of that era, had never gotten closer than within 1.5 seconds of the 4-minute barrier before. Within 46 days of Bannister’s breakthrough, Landy surpassed the record with a 3:57.9 in Finland. Bannister and Landy raced later in the year in the “Mile of the Century” at Vancouver, a runoff to decide who was the fastest at running the mile. Bannister won in 3:58.8 to Landy’s 3:59.6, the first time two men in one race had broken 4 minutes.

By the end of 1957, 16 runners had logged sub-4-minute miles.

What holds us back in our zone of comfort is often a fear or that facing that fear head on might be overwhelming. You need to work at stretching your comfort zone and slowly making it less uncomfortable and frightening.

Realise that it can be fun to get out of your comfort zone despite what your mind and feelings might be telling you before you get started. Think back to the previous times when you have broken out of your comfort zone. Focus on the positive memories, when you got out there, when you took a chance. And you will probably remember that it wasn’t so bad, it was actually fun and exciting and something new to you.

A lot of times we automatically play back negative experiences or negative interpretations of events in our minds before we are about to do something. We forget about the positive memories and our previous, positive achievements. Let the good memories flow through your mind instead.

It can be uncomfortable to step out of your comfort zone. But the discomfort will be temporary so just do it even though you may not fully feel like it.

If you accept that there is going to be some discomfort it tends to become smaller or less significant. If you on the other hand focus on how hard it is, think about it a lot and create all sorts of drama around it then you feed it with more energy and it becomes so uncomfortable that you can become paralysed from taking action.