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Unit 1

The Change I Want to See – Reflective report

Reflecting on my journey in the project “The Change I Want to See,” I realized that I struggled in the initial stages of the project. Specifically, I think I have trouble identifying the definition of “comfort zone” in my project, my stakeholders and explaining the importance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone, as well as understanding the connection between comfort zones and “change the career path”(then job insecurity), These issues made it challenging to define the scope of the project and understand its relevance to my target audiences.

However, through my participation in the last tutorial session and the Dragon Den, as well as conversations with people from diverse backgrounds, I gained important insights that helped me move forward. First, I realized that conducting research to understand the problem is crucial before attempting to solve it. This helped me gain a deeper understanding of the issues and identify the specific stakeholders I needed to target in the subsequent work.

Secondly, I learned that narrowing down the topic and stakeholders could make the project more achievable and meaningful. By focusing on a specific issue and a specific group of people, I could make a more significant impact and create a more targeted intervention.

Thirdly, I realized the importance of engaging in conversations with others to gain new perspectives and ideas that may not be found in books and journals. While theoretical knowledge is valuable, it is essential to talk to people and gain insights from them.

Finally, I also learnt that creativity can take many forms and it not only refers to creating or designing some objects. Building up a community can be a powerful way to bring about intervention and change. Creating a community around a specific issue can help raise awareness and generate support for a cause.

In conclusion, the journey in the project “The Change I Want to See” taught me valuable lessons that will undoubtedly help me in my future endeavors. I learned the importance of conducting research, narrowing down the topic, engaging in conversations with others, and thinking creatively. These lessons have enabled me to make significant progress towards achieving my goals, and I hope to continue building on them as I move forward with the project.

As I continue with the project, my focus will be on building a coffee community for 35-45-year-old women experiencing midlife crisis due to job insecurity and self-consciousness. Through this community, I aim to create a supportive space where women can come together, share their experiences, and self-identify with others facing similar challenges.

Job insecurity and self-consciousness can be significant factors contributing to midlife crisis for these women. Therefore, the community will provide a platform for women to explore potential solutions and take action to improve their circumstances. By bringing women together and facilitating dialogue and collaboration, I hope to empower them to take control of their situations and pursue the opportunities that are available to them.

Through this project, I aspire to make a meaningful difference in the lives of these women by providing them with a safe and supportive space to connect with others, share their experiences, and find solutions to their challenges. My hope is that this community will not only raise awareness about the issues of midlife crisis, job insecurity, and self-consciousness but also inspire others to take action towards positive change in their own communities.

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Unit 1

The Change I Want To See –Comfort Zome (2)

How do you define the “comfort zone”?

Stepping out of comfort zone is something that  everyone experiences or will experience at least once in their life.For example, we may go from being a student to a working professional, or from being single to becoming a parent. Different people have different definition about their “comfort zone”. In order to make the project could be more achieveable, my tutor suggested first thing I can do is to figure out the definition of “comfort zone“ in my project and narrow down the target audiences.

“The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”

Judith Bardwick, Danger in the Comfort Zone

In general, when people mentioned “comfort zone”, it refers to people in the stable circumstance without any challenge and risk-taking. some individuals may choose to leave their comfort zones voluntarily in pursuit of personal or professional growth, others may be forced out of their comfort zones due to circumstances such as job loss, major life changes, or unexpected challenges. I listed some key words as below to relate to the definition of “comfort zone” in this project.

Some Key words: Female, 35-50 years old, career-oriented, family, midlife crisis, work-life balance, self-improvement, self-awareness, mental well-beings, motivated, coffee, creative, coffee cup/package design

Based on the key words, I redefine the “comfort zone” as the roles (identities? not sure if the meaning of role and identity is same or different) of women playing in their lives. As a girl grows into a woman, from being a student to a working professional, and from being single to becoming a parent, during the every step of change, she must navigate and fulfill various roles and expectations within society.

Middle Aged-Adults & Midlife Crisis

Researchers and the public have generally considered midlife to encompass the ages of 40 to 60, plus or minus 10 years, making it a relative approximation (Infurna, Gerstorf and Lachman, 2020). And Jung referred midlife as the afternoon of life. But More important for defining midlife than chronological age are the unique role constellations that people take on combined with the timing of life events and experiences (Lachman, 2004).

The term “Midlife crisis” was first coined by Elliott Jaques (1965), when he observed in his midlife client’s abrupt changes in lifestyle and productivity as well as coming face-to-face with one’s own limitations and ever-increasing salience of mortality. Midlife crisis includes mental and physicial challenges.

Source: Midlife in the 2020s: Opportunities and Challenges

Inspiration

The project I would like mainly focus on female in midlife, whether she experienced midlife crisis or not, she must have experienced stepping out of her comfort zone (changed her role she need to play in the society) once at least in her lifetime.

Furthermore, my tutor David suggested me that I could explore the connection between my interest in coffee and my topic of comfort zone. Personally, I find that the process of making and drinking coffee has a comforting effect on me, similar to how some people may turn to smoking when feeling stressed or frustrated.

But how can coffee industry impact the midlife Women. their mental well-beings when they getting out of their comfort zone, even the society?

In this Sat, I visited the London Coffee Festival with my Japanese friend. There’re a lot of coffee brands in UK joined the event. I also visited some coffee festivals and fairs in China before, the main difference between the events in the 2 countries is that in China, most coffee shops and brands brought their latest and special flavored drinks or their peripheral products as gimmicks to attract visitors while in london, most coffee owners only offer their main menus as usual ( Esspreso, Americano, Flat White, Latte, etc. ), but what they really inspired me is most of them bring their brands’ stories to this event to attract visitors to understand what they really want to do.

One of the coffee brands inspired me a lot is “REDEMPTION ROASTERS”. It is the world’s first prison based coffee company. They help inside and outside prison for long-term employment via coffee and hospitality training. At the same time, they partnered with “Working Chance” to support women with convictions into employment. 

https://www.redemptionroasters.com/impact-updates/working-chance/

Another coffee cup packaging company Decent also make me feel impressive. The essential concept at the heart of this company is to “ensure we can unmake everthing we make”. https://decentpackaging.co.uk/pages/about-us

Stakeholders

  1. Midlife female coffee drinkers (35-45 years old) who are experiencing a midlife crisis in job security and seeking to grow in their personal or professional lives;
  2. Coffee brand owners: The coffee itself could be sourced from female-led coffee farms or roasters and marketed as a product that empowers women in the coffee industry
  3. Coffee shop/space
  4. Organizer of Coffee Community

Categories
Unit 1

The Change I Want To See — Comfort Zone (1)

Stay or step out of your comfort zone?

Stepping out of our comfort zone means embracing change and making ourselves different. It’s something that everyone experiences or will experience at least once in their life. For example, we may go from being a student to a working professional, or from being single to becoming a parent. However, stepping out of our comfort zone is not an easy thing.

The topic started from my personal experience. In the past 3 years, many people including me suffered from the restricted quarantine policy in my home country and the pandemic made me realise that our life can be changed completely in one night, and we should do something to catch up with the changing world. 3 years ago, I seized an opportunity to get a higher position in other city by in the same organization I worked, then I first decided to step out of my comfort zone after I graduated from MSc in UK, and moved from the city I called “home town” to another city to start my new life and my career. And 3 years later, I made decision to step out of my comfort zone again. I quitted my job from Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which I worked for 10 years and came to London to study the creative industy which is quite a new and challenging course for me. I can still remeber every step I took, I felt very excited and curious. And once made the decision, I would be determined to do that. And as predicted, everytime, when exploring the new comfort zone, I would also feel stressed, anxious because too much uncertainties during the process. Stepping out of comfort zone is not an easy thing.

Can it be easier to step out of our comfort zone, and can I understand more through this project?

Primary Research

In this project, I conducted questionnaire and interviews as primary research to collect the information to understand and prove nervous, anxious are common emotions of individuals when stepping out of comfort zone. But once you got out of the comfort zone successfully, relieved, proud, positive, and motivated emotions are coming.

Then I narrowed down the target audiences who step out of their career comfort zone and conducted 2 interviews with 2 individuals, one who is currently experiencing the challenge of stepping out of her comfort zone (she was forced to find a new job in a new city but still work in the same industry as before), and the other who has already stepped out of the comfort zone and now feels confortable with the new career path (she considered and prepared to step out of her career comfort zone for a long time, finally in last year, she got the offer of new company and now working in the different fileld but similar title as before. she thought government relation is still her strength and she just wants to shift in different industry and learns more new knowledge and gains more experience.)

Secondary Research

Source:PositivePsychology.com Toolkit – ‘Leaving The Comfort Zone’

It takes courage to step from the comfort zone into the fear zone. Without a clear roadmap, there’s no way to build on previous experiences. This can be anxiety provoking. Yet persevere long enough, and you enter the learning zone, where you gain new skills and deal with challenges resourcefully.

After a learning period, a new comfort zone is created, expanding one’s ability to reach even greater heights. This is what it means to be in the growth zone.

Page, O. (2020) How to Leave your Comfort Zone and Enter your ‘Growth Zone’

Reference list

Biswas, S.K. (2020) Can You Grow In Your Comfort Zone?, Live Your Life On Purpose. Available at: https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/can-you-grow-in-your-comfort-zone-884a26f7b96c (Accessed: 14 April 2023).

Dartnell, A. (2021) How to Expand Your Comfort Zone to Achieve Your Goals, Alice Dartnell. Available at: https://alicedartnell.com/blog/how-to-expand-your-comfort-zone-to-achieve-your-goals/ (Accessed: 11 April 2023).

Kiknadze, N.C. and Leary, M.R. (2021) ‘Comfort zone orientation: Individual differences in the motivation to move beyond one’s comfort zone’, Personality and Individual Differences, 181(Volume 181, October 2021, 111024), p. 111024. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111024.

Kuster, E. (no date) Don’t Leave Your Comfort Zone, Expand It, WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/expand-your-comfort-zone#:~:text=When%20you%20have%20a%20large (Accessed: 11 April 2023).

Leadership Lessons with Ginni Rometty – Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone (no date) www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpOLqw4JRA (Accessed: 16 April 2023).

Page, O. (2020) How to Leave your Comfort Zone and Enter your ‘Growth Zone’, PositivePsychology.com. Available at: https://positivepsychology.com/comfort-zone/ (Accessed: 10 April 2023).

Reyes, M.A. (2021) The Problem of Cultural Comfort Zones, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/ar-che-type/the-problem-of-cultural-comfort-zones-cd54dc077738 (Accessed: 12 April 2023).

Russo-Netzer, P. and Cohen, G.L. (2022) ‘“If you’re uncomfortable, go outside your comfort zone”: A novel behavioral “stretch” intervention supports the well-being of unhappy people’, The Journal of Positive Psychology, pp. 1–17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2036794.