I had an old friend call me who I hadn’t talked to in about five years. (Yes, I still have the same number after that long, even after having gone through about 6 phones. Three just in six months….I’m a clutz). Anyhow, her and I used to work for the same company and we both worked for this company for an extended period of time. We were dedicated to this company. Despite a lot of stuff, most of their employees were dedicated, due to a mission statement that had not, for many years, been the focus of the company sadly.

She had reached out looking for a letter (which actually also gave me an ingenious idea to share with ALL of you in another post). But we spoke about the issue she was having, the type of letter she was looking for and then we circled back to talk about where life had led us now with work and the company we used to work for in comparison to who each of us work for now.

The next words out of her mouth were, “Brittney, this is going to sound so silly. But, I actually work for a REAL company now.”

While I laughed a little bit, I also completely understood what she meant. She went on to elaborate with how amazing her company is and how she is now held accountable for everything that she does and what a great feeling that is. That not only is she held accountable, but she is held accountable in light of training she is provided. She isn’t left in the dark to guess and then be held accountable. She is trained, and trained well and then held accountable for said usage of training.

She said she absolutely loved her mind being stretched. She hadn’t had that before. (She had actually been with the prior company a lot longer than I had). She is currently using Yardi, which her and I are both RealPage girls all the way. Years spent on that software.

But here’s the thing about what she said that struck me enough to write a post. She was stretching her mind and she loved every minute of it. I get that. Completely and totally. Stretching your mind though starts with the fear of the unknown. Which she said initially she was fearful. Fearful of a new company. New expectations…or rather any expectations at all. Fearful of a new software. And then once the fear had subsided and she realized that she could in fact do it, and do it well as she had before, she began enjoying her mind being stretched. Her mind being forced to think in different ways. Forcing herself out of her comfort zone.

I tell you people, getting out of your comfort zone is an amazing thing. Stretching your mind. Do you want to know what the definition of stretching is? I LOVE THIS!!!

Stretching: be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking

 Without tearing or breaking. You’re not going to break. Fear is a natural feeling, but, being afraid of something new scares me less than the possibility of complacency. And I assure you, without proper “stretching”, complacency will in fact occur. So STREEEEETCH as far as you possibly can this next week. Get out of your comfort zone, be afraid and stretch your mind!

Good Luck!