Let’s face it, none of us enjoy being uncomfortable. But when you can master the art of being manageably uncomfortable you’ll see some amazing growth in your life.
The object is to be just outside your comfort zone. Not so far outside of it that you’re just white-knuckling it. There really is a sweet spot. Because if it’s so far outside of your level of comfort you will just feel defeated, but if you can have small victories, they will compound to give you greater and greater confidence.
This theory of being manageably uncomfortable works with just about anything. For me I have this fear of being lost so over the last several years I’ve gone just a little further away from home, which has led to me traveling all over the country in recent years. There have been moments that I’ve been pretty uncomfortable and I wasn’t sure I could get the little people in my head to calm down. Recently I’ve taken to hiking a bit more. Putting myself out in the woods seemed very vulnerable yet I forced myself to go and do it little by little. I haven’t gone on any major day long hikes yet but the more short day ones I do the more confident I get I’ll be fine.
This could translate to something as simple as learning how to eat healthy. It’s already challenging to plan and prep meals for the best of us. If this is something you’re not familiar with it could be very uncomfortable figuring out a routine. I usually don’t have my clients overhaul their eating all in one week. You have to exercise that uncomfortableness. I have them just start with planning. I don’t care if you plan Pizza or macaroni and cheese into your week, just get in the habit of planning. Then we get into swapping out certain meals. I get it, figuring out healthy meals can be downright overwhelming and very uncomfortable. But I guarantee you that if you can get past that being uncomfortable and start planning meals and prepping healthy meals it will compound to bring so many benefits. Anything unfamiliar is uncomfortable, so don’t make 6 new recipes in one week. Pick one new recipe a week or even every other week in the beginning. You have to start by being uncomfortable though.
Embrace being uncomfortable, seek opportunities to be uncomfortable, take an inventory of what causes you to be uncomfortable and make a list of little ways you can put yourself into uncomfortable situations.
Trevor Noah says in his book Born a Crime “failure is an answer, rejection is an answer, but regret is an eternal question.” If you don’t try things that are uncomfortable you’ll never have an answer, you’ll never be rejected, you’ll just be left wondering what could have been.
findingkympossible 