Book Review: The Discomfort Zone by Farrah Storr
Hi and welcome to my July book review.
If it’s your first time here, my name is Beaulah. I am a leadership and career development coach, speaker and trainer helping professionals to grow, thrive and succeed in work and business.
Our Book Club read for July was “ The Discomfort Zone” By Farrah Storr.
Why did I choose this book? I wanted to help the women in my group to master their fears. We all know that fear is one of the many obstacles that keep us from meeting and reaching our goals and our highest potential.
Who is the Author? Farrah Storr is an award-winning journalist and editor. She was included on the list of the UK’s 1000 Most Influential People in 2017.
In this book, she shares critical concepts with her readers on how to master fear so you can reach your highest potential.
Farrah introduces reframing as one of the key concepts to master your fears - reframing your fear and using it to improve your performance. This could be your performance at work or in your business, wherever it is that you want to increase your performance.
The second concept she shares is that how we handle obstacles in life determines the level of success we get. Do we give up when we face setbacks, or do we become more determined to achieve our goals?
Farrah goes on to talk about post-traumatic growth, saying that traumatic events can inspire positive outcomes in our lives. Think about the traumatic events that have happened to you… is there anything positive that came about in your life as a result of a traumatic loss or disappointment?
Farrah goes on to touch on perfection and how it can hinder your progress to reaching your full potential. (I was laughing at myself while reading this part in the book because I resonated with this and have to remind myself to make progress over perfection :) continually.
Another concept she explores is that of using feedback as a tool to grow and thrive in both your professional and personal life. I think that getting feedback is difficult for many people. It is not for the faint-hearted, but it is necessary to continue to grow. Are you asking for feedback regularly at work, at home, with your friendship groups, with your business accountability partner, etc.? Don’t just wait for when you have your yearly review or monthly reviews with your manager.
Farrah shares a lot of ways of how you can do this and get into the habit of using feedback as a tool to grow and thrive in all areas of your life that you want to grow in.
Farrah talks about the creativity that can be unleashed when we hit obstacles in our lives. She suggests that obstacles can help us to dig deep for solutions that sometimes are unique and move us from where we are to where we want to be. I liked this idea because although hard to do at first, you have to train your mind to go into creative thinking when you feel stuck and unable to move forward with something.
Farrah also touches on the topic of failure, and how we must all be open to failure if we want to succeed in life. A lot of individuals that we hear about who have gone on to have great careers and who have gone on to have successful businesses say they were not an overnight success and have always tried many things and failed and failure has never stopped them working again. Farrah, rightly says If you want to succeed in your life, you have to be in the habit of opening up yourself to failure. The worst that can happen is that you will learn.
Farrah introduces to her readers, the idea of mutual benefit. She explains that identifying what you can give in return to someone, transforms your request from them into a gesture of help. Thinking win-win in your work and business relationships helps you to succeed.
My three takeaways:
I quite enjoyed reading the book because it was an easy read and it is packed full of practical ways you can build these habits into your life to master your fears. I finished it in just over 14 days. As a busy professional, the time I take to read varies each week and depends on what is happening for me at work and at home. I used to read on my commute, however, since Covid-19, I have managed to begin a reading routine before bedtime each night.
The first takeaway that resonated with me was the idea of letting go of perfection, I can be quite a perfectionist sometimes. That can sometimes get in the way of me trying to achieve a goal.
My second takeaway was getting into the habit of thinking creatively when I have hit an obstacle to achieving my goals. I really like this because it helps you to find unique solutions to problems. I may have to step away from the problem briefly to get into that zone of thinking and allowing myself to be creative.
Last but not least, the idea of being prepared and always conscious of mutual benefit when I'm working with others in the team or in business or whenever I am trying to collaborate with others.
I want to be very conscious of doing more of these three ideas going forward. If you read the book along with us, what are your three big ideas you are taking forward from the book?
If you enjoyed reading this review and want to master your fears so you can succeed in work or in business then buy your copy by clicking the direct picture links to Amazon or Audible on this page.
If you couldn’t make it to our last book club discussion, you can read along with us and join our August discussion on the 2nd September 2020.
Our August book is “The Joy of Work” by Bruce Daisley. Bruce shares with us the 30 hacks we could use to bring joy into our jobs. You can buy your copy today by clicking the link below.
Happy reading and I will see you at the August book club discussion on Wednesday 2nd of September at 8:30 pm.
Beaulah Chizimba is a senior nurse leader, leadership and career development coach speaker and trainer, passionate about transformational and inclusive leadership and writes about how health and care professionals can raise self-awareness, grow leadership skills and thrive at work.