“It’s difficult overcoming a maintaining culture.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell from his book, Leadershift (p. 105). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

It really is!

John says, “And if you also happen to have an inherent tendency toward inactivity when it comes to innovation, you have even more to overcome.”

He goes on, “I’ve observed that we all tend to fall into one of four different zones when it comes to innovation, which impacts how we live, how we lead, and what we achieve. Here are the zones, along with attitude statements that represent them:

1.    THE COASTING ZONE—'I do as little as possible.’

2.    THE COMFORT ZONE—'I do what I have always done.’

3.    THE CHALLENGE ZONE— ‘I attempt to do what I haven’t done before.’

4.    ​THE CREATIVE ZONE—'I attempt to think what I have never thought before.’ ”

He then says, “To which zone do you naturally gravitate? Do you tend to live in the coasting zone, casually—even passively—doing as little as possible? Do you tend to stay in the comfort zone, avoiding risks? Do you connect with the challenge zone, where you try new things and willingly risk failure? Or do you try to stretch yourself the furthest by living in the creative zone, where you explore new ideas, seek out other perspectives, and cross bridges in your imagination long before you physically reach them?

“The good news is that we have the ability to choose a zone different from our natural one. And I recommend the creative zone, because it is where we experience abundance and expand our potential. If you want to take your leadership to ever-higher levels, you need to make the leadershift from maintaining to creating and try to live in the creative zone.”

And that is good news for some of us, isn’t it? 

Yes, yes!