I have this love-hate relationship with „going out of my comfort zone”. I actually hate it, but when I finally do it, I feel so satisfied. I share it with everyone. I talk about it all day and all my friends know about it. For example, last month I went on vacation to France. But not the kind of vacation that I would love to have, which would be lying on the beach of Saint-Tropez, partying in Cannes and taking a trip to Monte Carlo to play all day. I completely spontaneously decided to sign up for the bike tour in the Loire Valley to see the chateaus around there. When I told one of my friends about it, she said: „Do I remember correctly you’re not a big sports fan, and not a big fan of history?” And she was right, but I wanted to try something different, for a change. And I loved it.
I have a notebook where I write down all my plans and goals for the future. I like to open it from time to time and see where I am, what I’ve managed to achieve and what didn’t work out. But the most interesting part for me opening it after a few months is seeing the plans I forgot about and this feeling „Did I really want that? So much has changed since I wrote it down. It would not make sense right now to go in that direction”. It turns out, something that was so important to me several months ago isn’t as important now, because so much has changed. And it is changing every day. Planning and setting goals for the future is important for me; I want to know where I am heading. But it’s also important to recognize the context, to live right now open to new opportunities and chances.
Change is the topic of the fourth edition of W Insight. First, we interview Jill Waymire Paine, a professor of Organizational Behavior at IE Business School in Madrid, who shares with the W Insight community her expertise on leading change, communicating effectively and engaging followers. Another insight comes from Ewa Rutczynska-Jamroz, strategy and innovation manager at Neuro Device Group, who has successfully managed to reconcile her work with family life. But in order to do this, she needed a change. With W Insight Ewa shares her experience in recognizing the moment to start something new.
And finally, our last story is about Kaja Kulinicz. Filip Szumowski, our guest contributor wrote about Kaja in the previous edition of W Insight. This time, in her own words, Kaja talks about how she spontaneously decided to start a company with audiobooks for children: „Planning for an indefinite period of time and hypothetically weighing options, risks, problems that most probably are never going to materialize – is like being a traveler who never left their room. The direction clarifies as you go; new ideas, crossroads are visible when you approach them… not from a distance. In my case, it was not about following a detailed plan. It was more about doing one thing after another, navigating in the chaos with my eyes fixed on the goal. I couldn’t be happier with the results. I am sure this is just one of many projects of this kind.”
What is your story? Let me know!
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