Once we were all accepted to come and work for an employer. They were looking for someone to lift some work of their shoulders or from their employees. At first there is a very specific job title and tasks that you need to fulfill. Through the months and years some opportunities arise for you to be promoted and to add new responsibilities to your daily work.
When you want to keep things easy you remain in your comfort zone and you refuse to move up the ladder. Not accepting extra responsibilities even those that come up your way voluntarily don’t hurt you. For example when you have been working somewhere for a year without having too much prior experience. At that point you end up in contact with a known difficult client. Your colleague offers to replace you and deal with the difficult situation. If you know you can’t succesfully solve it then let them do it. But at least pay attention how they do it, learn from and it accept a next opportunity to do it yourself.
When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge. – Terry Brennan
Taking difficult situations head on might feel awkward and hard at first instance. Slowly but surely you will start to get the hang of it. Before you know it you are known for the person able to talk to the difficult clients and solve the difficult situations. It may not lead to big chances or an increase of your wage. The benefit you will have is that it’s one extra thing you don’t have to worry about and a benefit for your employer to keep you around.
The more often you take on challenges the easier it becomes to try new things. Only the people who are constantly looking for difficult situations and to improve themselves will receive new opportunities and succeed at them. The same goes for learning new languages and succesfully applying them during your work hours. Instead of having to hiring an extra employee who is able to speak the language they can ask you for help. Having experience and knowledge at your job enables you to apply both of those in the targeted language of your client.
Keep on pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. At some point your comfort zone will be much wider than those of your peers which will give you an advantage on the job market.