Page 31 - October 2021 Issue

“I’m comfortable cooking only ribeyes.” “I’m comfortable cook- ing on this cooker.” When asked to step out of one’s comfort zone can be a difficult place. I’m no different. When I switched the type of grill to cook on, it was a difficult transition but a necessary one. It took time to get used to. I was tempted to go back to my place of comfort. But I kept my eye on a bigger pic- ture and now my comfortable place is my new grill.
This is also true in business. Jim Collins, the author of the book, Good to Great and one I quote often speaks to this. In a nut- shell, he gives examples of businesses who were comfortable with good enough and ultimately got surpassed by those hungry to be great. An example of this is A&P, once a top store, sur- passed by Kroger and now A&P doesn’t exist. They were com- fortable. In our pandemic era, being comfortable isn’t really an option. Change needs to happen even if it uncomfortable in the beginning.
Willingness to Change
Once you’ve recognized the need for change (and identified those changes) and decided you’re tired of the comfort zone, then you must be willing to make the changes. You’d think once you’ve done the other two, the last one would be a cinch. But it isn’t. We’ve all come across people who have come to this choice and just decided they aren’t willing. They know change
must happen but content to sit where they are, letting the other cooks, business, and people pass them by. Maybe its pride stop- ping them. Perhaps they’re afraid of the unknown. It could be they are just stuck on where to begin or overwhelmed by the amount of change that’s needed. All of this can sabotage the willingness.
When it comes to cooking, it could be the fear of the unknown. Am I making the right move? Is this new seasoning what I need? When it comes to this, one can become paralyzed by questions given to us by the voices in our head. But pushing those aside is a step forward towards the willingness to change. These questions come from a place of self-doubt, which there isn’t anything wrong with that, unless we allow them to get a foothold.
In business, being willing to change is a huge step. It may cause a little discomfort for both the business and the customers. This is a big reason many don’t change or are so quick to revert to the old ways. But growth requires a willingness to change. A local restaurant and local favorite where I live was approached with ways to improve their business, attract a larger clientele, and grow. Their response to this was a simple one, “we like it the way things are.” The result is they are no longer in business. This is a hard choice, to change one’s mindset, but to be a suc- cess, to grow, this is sometimes the only way.
OCTOBER 2021
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