I’m sure you have probably heard about the concept of getting out of your comfort zone many times. Today I want to tell you how and why you should apply it to your fashion career.
First of all, what does getting out of your comfort zone means? It means that you do things that you won’t do normally. You take new actions, you try something new. You get out of your comfort and safe bubble of routines and things you are used to do.
I want to give you a quick example referring directly to your fashion career. You are used to applying for jobs by looking at the job boards online, selecting those that fit you, and submitting your resume.
But if one day instead of waiting for your favorite brand to post the job made for you, you email the manager and you pitch yourself for a job/internship you are doing something which is not in your routine, so you are getting out of your comfort zone.
Why you should get out of your comfort zone?
It’s great to have routines. Being consistent is something that I’ve recommended a lot here on Glam Observer if you want to see results.
You don’t see results from the things you do once, but from the actions to take consistently. This means you cannot apply for one job and then apply for others after 2 weeks and hope to see results (something else that you’ve heard me saying many times is that hope is not a strategy) you should apply for multiple jobs daily, networking with industry professionals every week, tailoring your cv and cover letter to the jobs every time you apply for a new job/internship…
So even though routines are fundamental and repeating actions on a consistent base is essential, introducing new actions that are outside your routine and so going out of your comfort zone, is essential if you want to achieve something else.
As Thomas Jefferson said:
“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”
Let’s say you are applying for fashion jobs/internships for a while with no results: companies don’t get back to you and you are still wondering what’s wrong with your applications or worst, what’s wrong with you. Well, of course there is nothing wrong with you. It’s just that if you want to get something DIFFERENT, achieve something that you don’t have, you should be doing things differently.
Most of us are scared to try something new whether because we are afraid to fail, because we don’t enjoy being uncomfortable, we don’t like the change, or simply because we are used to doing something in that way that we don’t even consider the fact that there could be more options and different ways.
But the truth is that if you want to see a change, if you want to grow, if you want to achieve something you don’t have now, you have to go out of your comfort zone.
And because I said above that being consistent is what makes the difference in your life, you have to be willing to add stepping out of your comfort zone into your regular practices.
I know that doing something that goes beyond our comfort zone most of the time it’s scary. But accept the fear and move on. Anytime that I’m scared of doing something new I remember this quote of Jack Canfield: “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” and I do it anyway. I embrace my fear because I know that fear is a natural human emotion and while we don’t get to choose whether or not to be afraid, we can choose to go ahead despite the fear. I know that if I wait for the fear to go away, the opportunity will go away too and if I don’t take action I’ll never get what I want.
I also know that the best things in life are not easy so it’s normal that I feel the risk when I want to try something new.
And you know what? Most of the best things that I’ve achieved so far are those that I did by pushing myself and doing something I was afraid of.
There is nothing wrong with failing. It’s part of the process. I’ve learned to fail, but fail fast and start again. Learn from your failures and try again or try something different.
When we fail it’s not just because what we did was wrong. Maybe it was not the right time, the person you had to deal with had a bad day… so you can either try again the same way or change something in your strategy.
If someone didn’t respond to your job application but you know that you did everything correctly because you used the right CV and cover letter templates, you tailored your cv to the job perfectly, you wrote correctly the email… in this case, it’s not because your strategy is not good, it’s just that there could be other factors that interfered, such as for example they have already hired someone but the position is still open. So in this case the problem is not you or your strategy, you just try again somewhere else.
While if you think your CV might not be so good, you are unsure about your application strategy then you might want to do more research on how you can improve them. You might want to educate yourself on that so you can set up a new strategy. You can for example register to my free webinar and learn 4 unconventional strategies to get a job in fashion to start applying for jobs differently.
Whether you have to try again or set up a new strategy, you should not live in fears but believe in abundance as I’ve written in this article where I talk about 8 mindsets to be adopted to be successful in fashion. I’ll report here a piece from that article on mindset #2: “ Your fear mindset says: “I didn’t get this job because I’m not good enough. I will never get a job!” while abundance says, “ My dream job is still out there waiting for me. I’ll keep looking.I’ll keep applying. I can do better.”” Click here to read more about the mindsets.
Fashion is a competitive industry you know this, no one is going to knock at your door with a job or an opportunity. You have to make yourself out there. You have to be brave and take action.
Maybe you are scared of reaching out to fashion people because you are an introvert and messaging a stranger is intimidating. But you know that connections are fundamental in fashion, so today get out of your comfort zone, close your eyes, breathe and hit that send button!
Say out loud to yourself “ [your name] you can do this!” and then just jump.
You’ll feel so much better later. You’ll feel the adrenaline because you did something that was so scary for you. You’ll feel proud because you have overcome your fears. And the more you do these uncomfortable things, the more you become comfortable with them and they will no longer scare you.
Ready to get out of your comfort zone today? Try these things:
- Send a cold email to the company pitching yourself for a job/internship
- Connect with that industry professional that works at your favorite brand
- Work on a presentation tailored on the brand to show your skillset and send it along with your application
- Write that article and pitch it to your favorite magazines
- Set up your portfolio and send it to designers and photographers
- Email your favorite stylists and ask if you can assist them
- Apply for jobs even when you don’t meet all the requirements
- Apply for internships and jobs top companies even if you don’t have experience yet or you didn’t study fashion
- Ask for more responsibilities at work
- Collect all your work and achievements into a document and go to your boss to talk about why you deserve a promotion
- Start working at your fashion brand today even if you are not totally ready and things are not perfect yet
- Start the fashion blog you’ve always wanted to launch
- Reach out industry professionals for informational interviews
- Take that course and learn a new skill
- Replace Instagram scrolling with a book
- Embrace failure as a learning opportunity
Many people lack confidence so get out of your comfort zone and start believing that you are enough. You are more capable than what you think!
