Stepping out of your comfort zone seems like it must, by definition, be an uncomfortable act. But what if it wasn’t?

Putting your hand up to make a change can be scary. You’re volunteering to step out of your comfort zone and into the unknown to make a change, and there’s a chance you might not get things right, there’s a chance you might not succeed, and that possibility is uncomfortable.

And do you know what we call the person who puts up their hand, the person who steps into the unknown in an attempt to make things better, the person who goes first, we call her a leader.

Becoming comfortable with stepping out of your comfort zone is to become comfortable with the act of leadership, and we need more leaders.

One way to become comfortable with stepping out of a comfort zone is to create a practice of it. The more often we do the practice, the more comfortable we get with it. We can practice small leaps, and as we get comfortable, we make bigger and bigger leaps.

The practice requires a commitment to a series of steps, not a miracle.

Seth Godin, The Practice

When we set up a practice, the practice itself becomes a comfort zone and the comfort zone of the practice extinguishes the fear, freeing us up to lead.

Leadership is a practice, and it could be yours.