An Interview with Maria Angelova
Fail everyday. Do not be scared of making mistakes — they’re your greatest teacher. I learn way more from making mistakes than I do anything else — either personally or professionally. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and to fail.
It feels most comfortable to stick with what we are familiar with. But anyone who has achieved great success will tell you that true growth comes from pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. What are some ways that influential people have pushed themselves out of their comfort zone to grow both personally and professionally? As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kazu.
Kazu is an engineering career coach and founder of Ultmeche — a Career Resources site focused both on job searching mainly focused on engineering (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Software Engineering, etc.), but covers other industries and sectors such as Tech, Business, Finance, Healthcare, Accounting, etc.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Growing up, I always enjoyed math and science which steered me over to becoming an engineer in my career. After being able to land my dream job at a company that designs, develops, builds, and supports one of the world’s most advanced products, I wanted to help others do the same.
Job hunting was and is the hardest thing ever — until I figured out the right job-hunting frameworks.
In 2016, I had the hardest time finding a job out of college.
I applied to 100+ jobs and in 1 month, I would hear back from absolutely no one. I thought it was normal and part of the game — that applying to jobs online felt like a black hole.
These results are terrible and it was because of my resume.
My resume looked absolutely terrible.
I didn’t know how to write a resume.
No one taught me and I messed up in not having a mentor or even seeking feedback from colleagues.
How would I know any better what I was doing was wrong? I thought it was all part of the game.
After an eternity of trial and error, I figured out what the right job searching frameworks were which led me to land my dream job.
I aspire to teach all of those trying to land their dream jobs the right frameworks so that they too can land themselves opportunities they wouldn’t be able to.
It was through the creation of my career services business which helped give me the confidence, knowledge, and experience to grow both personally and professionally.
Some people say “Just be more confident”, but it’s hard to establish that confidence without nothing to back it.
The creation of my business is what allows me to look in the mirror day by day and appreciate who I am.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“To become more confident, you need to become more competent”
To make business work, you need an absurd amount of confidence in your own abilities to get things done. When I stumbled upon this phrase, it made me realize that the only thing I need to become more confident is to put in the reps. Practice, study, read, execute, and doing things over and over while racking successes along the way is an insanely positive feedback loop when it comes to building confidence. When you’re more confident, it carries when you’re doing marketing, sales, writing, or doing anything related to your business.
I believe confidence and competence are linked with growth both in the personal and professional realm.
It will be hard to grow both personally and professionally without confidence and competence.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Lex Fridman and Andrew Huberman both explore aspects of self-psychology, intimacy, and relationships in their podcasts. I’m truly a fan of their work. I love how Huberman has an in-depth understanding of the body from a natural standpoint (hormones, blood work, etc.) and how Fridman is someone very established in AI and machine learning technology, yet dabbles into realms such as self-psychology, intimacy, or relationships.
Is it not crazy to think about how we’re feeling as a function of hormones, neurotransmitters, and our baseline health levels?
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s start with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. What does “getting outside of your comfort zone” mean?
Doing something you’re scared to do. Day by day, we get too comfortable and to achieve something we want, sometimes we need to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Whether it’s speaking up in front of management, putting yourself out there for love or dating, or trying a new fitness challenge for the first time, these are all areas in life that I’m sure anyone would like to improve on, yet find themselves stuck in their comfortable bubble.
Can you help articulate a few reasons why it is important to get out of your comfort zone?
If we get too comfortable, we won’t grow as individuals. This then has a downstream effect that society doesn’t get out of their comfort zone and lacks opportunities for growth. Comfort also implies complacency and satisfaction. I’m sure a ton of us, after doing some self-reflection, will find ourselves wanting more than our current circumstances, but be too afraid to take the next big leap of faith — whether it be more money, relationships, or trying activities.
Is it possible to grow without leaving your comfort zone? Can you explain what you mean?
Unfortunately, no. The very definition of growth requires one to be uncomfortable. They need to adopt the mindset that they’re not where they want to be yet and that they’re in a position that they need to be learning. A ton of us have huge egos and don’t put ourselves in this “beginner” type of mindset, which is hugely detrimental to us as this won’t allow us the opportunity for growth and development.
Can you share some anecdotes from your personal experience? Can you share a story about a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone and how it helped you grow? How does it feel to take those first difficult steps?
One of the reasons that I started my business was because I’m someone that doesn’t fear to be uncomfortable. I understand that feeling uncomfortable is a painful feeling, but growth requires pain. I was asking myself questions and realized that I wasn’t who I wanted to be yet. Once I determined and started the building of a business — everything else seemed to fall into place regarding personal and professional development. I was more confident in who I was and had a better understanding of what I wanted to achieve. I had a reason to actually love myself instead of just “blindly loving myself”. I’m able to carry myself so much more confidently now through the knowledge, experience, skillsets, and success stories I have generated along the way.
Here is the central question of our discussion. What are your “five ways to push past your comfort zone, to grow both personally and professionally”?
- Do something new everyday
Try something new every day! A new workout, new place to get stuff, a new look — anything to “break the cycle” and get out of the norm. Life gets pretty tiring and sometimes we all stick to our mundane cyclical routines as a function of comfort and familiarity. We may be tired, but this is exactly the most important time to do something new and uncomfortable — as this could give us the passion and fire that we need to adopt an everlasting growth mindset.
2. Fail everyday
Do not be scared of making mistakes — they’re your greatest teacher. I learn way more from making mistakes than I do anything else — either personally or professionally. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and to fail.
When you do fail, you can always try again. There will always be newer and better opportunities elsewhere. Each failure provides you an opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Whether it be messing up on a date or messing up on a big review meeting you have at work.
3. Push yourself physically
I truly believe that there are many aspects of the gym, weightlifting, and fitness that carry on over to everyday life. In the gym, we are faced with grueling physical challenges — to pick stuff off of the ground and move them. Although this sounds extremely simple, there’s so much more that goes into it.
If you’re reading this and need to grow both professionally and personally, I highly recommend that you get a gym membership. There’s something extremely challenging about giving it your all, when you’re introduced to physical fatigue beyond what you’re mentally capable of. Pushing through these moments of fatigue and exhaustion will push you to levels that you’d never even know you were capable of. Try it!
4. Take time to self-reflect
Growth is never linear. Don’t be fed up if you’re actively working to seek out discomfort to grow both personally and professionally, but never see any of that growth yet. This is where self-reflection comes in handy. Personally, I like to take the time to journal and write about what I felt, accomplished, didn’t feel good about, areas where I can improve on daily. It’s insane what the benefits of journaling come to over a long period of time — compound interest at work! Although it doesn’t have to be journaling, make sure, in periods where you’re looking for growth and development, to evaluate where you’re at, relative to when you’ve started.
5. Always be curious
Always be in a position to learn. Never accept the fact that you know everything — and chances are, that if you do accept this mindset, you know almost nothing. (Look into Dunning Kruger effect)
Day by day, you should constantly be learning, asking questions, researching and understand what specific actions you can take and execute on to drive growth and development professionally. Nothing will happen if you don’t take action.
From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that keep someone from pushing out of their comfort zone?
The fear of the unknown and the fear of being looked at as a “beginner”. Like I said, this takes a huge stab at anyone’s ego to be able to admit to themselves that they’re a beginner and not skilled at anything. Too many people are unwilling to let go of their egos and be looked at to really hit their full potential in lives. Pretty sad.
There is a well-known quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that says, “Do something that scares you every day”. What exactly does this mean to you? Is there inherent value in doing something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, even if it does not relate to personal or professional growth? For example, if one is uncomfortable about walking alone at night should they purposely push themselves to do it often for the sake of going beyond their comfort zone? Can you please explain what you mean?
This quote truly resonates with me. Although there’s a ton of nuance associated with it — people should be actively looking for discomfort. This doesn’t mean to straight out just embarrass oneself, but to constantly seek challenging situations in which they can grow and develop professionally or personally. It could be something as simple as speaking up at a meeting or talking to the pretty girl that you’re interested in. We all get nervous when presented upon scary situations. When we tackle those “scary” situations head on (nothing life threatening), we give ourselves so much room for growth and development.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Individuals need to take accountability and ownership of their own actions. When they start being honest with themselves and doing what they need to do day by day, they can have an honest look at the person in the mirror. This is the first step to being able to understand and accept oneself at an individual level.
At a societal level, there should be more positive reinforcement for people to be more introspective. Although currently it may be “cheesy” to be this introspective and to be in touch with one’s own feelings, there needs to be some baseline influence set on developing this self-awareness so that people can better understand and accept themselves.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Lex Fridman and Andrew Huberman would be great people to get lunch with! I would love to have a further look into their minds and see how much I can get out of them from having lunch with them. I also love that they value physical health and fitness, which is something that is very important in my life also. It’s also cool that Lex Fridman does Jiu Jitsu!
How can our readers follow you online?
Follow me @ultmeche on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.
Additionally, check out ultmeche.com — a career resources website focused on giving jobseekers the best tools they can get to land their dream jobs.
I post a ton of content for my readers!
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Kazu Of Ultmeche On How to Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone To Grow Both Personally and Professionally was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.