Comfort Zone

Mike Skramstad

13 years ago

Everyone has their comfort zones and it's very difficult to do something different. You get in patterns in everything that you do and when change is presented, you have to let go and know that leaving your comfort zones can often improve both your profession and personal life.

A couple weeks ago, I attended the Sirona Speaker Academy with other cerecdoctors.com faculty. Many of us were experienced speakers and thought that our style was effective. We were comfortable and had been doing it for quite some time. The first thing Dr. Paul Homoly did was put us outside our comfort zone. He made us try things that had us stuttering and confused during our presentations. It was extremely difficult for all of us. However, we pushed on and by the end of the Academy, we all were improved. It actually was quite amazing to see the transformations with all who were involved - even the most accomplished speakers were markedly improved.

Moving outside our comfort zone is something that we all do when working with technology. For most of us, it started with 'buying in' to the idea of CAD/CAM and digital impressioning. What I encourage all of you to do is find that next step that can bring you outside of your current comfort zone. Maybe it's taking the next advanced training class to learn how to do posterior quadrants of anterior cases, maybe it's fabricating your own implant restorations or abutments, or maybe it's GALILEOS and learning how to place implants. Whatever it is, find out what your next step is along your journey. It will be difficult at first, but the long-term rewards will be worth it.