Comfort Zones and Milestones

Peter Gardell

13 years ago

This past weekend was a milestone for me. It was a huge step, a major accomplishment that I wouldn't have been able to complete without the support of my family and friends. Neither would let me take the easy way out; they pushed and encouraged, and I trusted that they wouldn't let me fail.

I have talked about getting out of my comfort zone on the cerecdoctors.com boards when doing the training at Scottsdale Center and when doing a training session with a new CEREC owner. I like a challenge and when it comes to doing things or solving problems I work my tail off to complete the task successfully. I look inside and see how I can do it, how I will complete it, with the intention it is my responsibility, I will accept the success or the defeat. If it is defeat, I will self-evaluate to see how next time I will succeed.

The task this time was getting in front of a group of my peers, my mentors, my esteemed colleagues, to present information that they would find beneficial and hopefully entertaining. I did not want them to leave with a feeling that I had wasted their valuable time.

The process started with an invitation to be part of cerecdoctors.com in a faculty position a few years ago. That opened the door to speaking opportunities at smaller events that were easy for me to prepare for and to manage. CEREC 25 approached and then the e-mail to see if I would take the stage. This was upping the ante. The time came and I fought through it. But I was at the limit for my comfort zone and I doubted that I had delivered to the audience the quality of lecture that they deserved.

For me to progress I needed to grow, to learn the craft of speaking better. It was at this point that I heard about the Sirona Speakers Academy and that a group of my peers and mentors were going. I wouldn't let a golden chance like this pass me by. Sameer Puri, Armen Mizayan, Mark Fleming, Mike Skramstad, Rich Rosenblatt and Tarun Argwal; the big dogs, my mentors and my friends. They are all well-seasoned veterans of the big stage; I was the newbie, the amateur and glad I made the cut, but at the same time worried I would hold them back from them getting the most out of the class.

I was more nervous standing in front of this group trying to present than the day I went to my father-in-law for permission to marry his daughter. I was at my comfort zone threshold, and I felt paralyzed, physically and mentally. I needed to ?nd a solution, I could not allow self-imposed limitations stop me from advancing, and my mentors and friends were there to help me. Gentle prodding, reinforcement, colorful jokes to break the tension, and sharp kicks in the ass all enabled me to move past my comfort zone. Now that I think of it, the jokes were very important because if the tension had not been broken I probably would be sitting in a jail somewhere after being convicted of killing Paul Homoly. Whom I owe a lot to because his surgical-like dissection of my personality, identi?cation of my weaknesses and the proper drill to strengthen them.

You cannot have a major breakthrough with being stripped down to the point where your defenses seem useless. If not surrounded by my mentors whom I respect and their constant support, there is no way I would have gotten anything out of the weekend other than the knowledge that I suck as a public speaker. I left with the feeling that I was 0 for 4, with three strikeouts. But I did get the bat on the ball my last at bat, and that's enough to keep me wanting more.