“If you make your decisions based on comfort, before long you will be uncomfortable.” ~Adrian Rogers

We all want things to come easy, and to avoid things that make us feel uncomfortable.

Nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life, but avoiding discomfort won’t help you reach that lifestyle.

Embrace it for growth

We need to accept that life will always have problems for us and to deal with them, we need to embrace discomfort.

It’s important to realize discomfort can help us change our life for the better, growth and discomfort go hand in hand.

Being comfortable with being uncomfortable will allow us to build unshakeable confidence to deal with life’s challenges.

Help us learn something new

To this day I still cringe at the time when I decided to join our class dance performance group for our graduation. I never danced before, much less on a stage.

I knew I wasn’t really a “natural” at moving my body to the rhythm of the music.

But for some reason, I decided to try something new. And there I was on stage dancing, I thought I did quite well but the reaction from my friends and audience said otherwise.

During the dance I could see some of my friends crying from laughter, one of them asked me to at least smile while dancing and some questioned if I was doing the robot dance move separately from the group.

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Although the experience was rather an embarrassing one, I have no regrets and after facing my fears the sense of satisfaction was even greater.

Facing your fears can be unsettling, it carries promises of thrills, adventures, and emotional stimulations.

It has been proven by science that facing an unfamiliar situation triggers a unique part of the brain that releases dopamine, nature’s make-you-happy chemical. If you want to experience that feeling then go out and seek new things.

Failure is inevitable

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

~Winston Churchill.

Success is always built upon change, risk, and self-development. It’s a journey of many unpredictable ups and downs.

Practicing discomfort can help us embrace challenges and go through failures one after another. This is important if you want to be successful in the long term.

Image By Bruce Elkin

Your limitations

I am glad that I tried dancing and making others laugh…But unless you explore the unknown, you won’t be able to know what you’re capable of. Without any action, you won’t know what you might actually like or don’t like.

Being self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses is crucial in understanding yourself. So that you can operate to the best of your capabilities.

Build mental toughness

You will realize that the fear you feel oftentimes is just temporary, and in reality, you will be happier that you’ve tried it.

Unless you are willing to feel uncomfortable, you will fail and surrender to the pressure life throws at you.

Have you tried taking a cold shower in the morning and enjoyed it, especially during cold weather?

The moment when the ice-cold water penetrates your skin and your body shivers out of control, also making up new dance moves.

Mental toughness is not something you are born with, it has to be learned and practiced. With that said, you will be able to better manage your thoughts which can help you boost your productivity.

Build trust in yourself

Since you didn’t challenge yourself you begin to lose trust in yourself. You will keep relying on other people to help and support you.

Practice discomfort so that you are not “just getting by” through life with no motivation to do anything. Do you prefer to survive or thrive in your life?

Some people die at age 25 and aren’t buried until they are 75.

~Benjamin Franklin

Is it bad to look for an easy life?

Getting comfortable isn’t bad in itself. But too much of it can actually do you harm in the long term, as your inactivity will leave you unfulfilled later on in life.

Get comfortable and enjoy it but know that it’s only for the short term. The world is always changing, you need to be able to move forward and adapt to it.

Doing the same comfortable and stress-free activity every day can be appealing. But sooner or later it becomes boring, especially if the daily things that you are doing aren’t helping you progress.

Too much comfort can make us complacent and lazy people. And lazy people tend to carry resentment and be discontent with their current situation.

Are you satisfied?

If you want a memorable life, you have to live a life worth remembering. Staying in your comfort zone won’t help you achieve such thrills.

Psychologists have linked happiness to curiosity and exploring unfamiliar territory. The desire to learn and know new things can boost our happiness and life satisfaction.

To be truly happy and satisfied is not to just do the things you like. It also requires growth and adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone.

Challenge yourself

Does that mean to get comfortable being uncomfortable I have to go beyond my comfort zone and put me in extremely high-stress situations?

After decades of research, it has been shown that “One of the most consistent findings is that perhaps the best way to stay motivated is to work on tasks of ‘just manageable difficulty.” says James Clear author of Atomic Habits The #1 New York Times bestseller.

James Clear calls it the Goldilocks Rule.

“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right,” he goes on to explain.

Safely stepping into the unknown

Many of us would like to explore new possibilities and experiences.

However, the defense mechanism in our brain causes us to stay on the safe path.

The discomfort is often greater in our minds than in reality.

The hardest part is to get started and if you can get through that battle in your mind, it’ll start getting easier after that.

Stepping into the unknown can be risky but you can always start by taking small and well-informed risks. Here are some ideas:

Research a new career
Buy an online course to learn a valuable skill
Start talking to a stranger
Negotiating your salary
Ask someone on a date

“A lot of times people look at risk and ask, ‘What are the odds that I will succeed?’ A different way to look at risk is to ask, ‘What’s the worst thing that would happen if I failed?'” ~ Dave Hitz

Learning to embrace it?

Up till now, you may have already come to the fact that embracing discomfort from time to time is the best thing to do.

Feeling uncomfortable is inevitable in our lives and choosing to avoid it is like not accepting the fact that the sky is blue during the day.

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Embracing discomfort can benefit you in your career, your relationships, and your personal goals.

Here are some of the few things you can do immediately: (By Neways)

Develop a craving for something more in your life.
Resist the pride of perfectionism.
Be willing to make “mistakes” and see them as learning experiences instead.
Deliberately seek out things that push your limits.
Stop avoiding what’s hard.

1st: Social settings

Try being social and accepting the discomfort. Over time, you will become a better conversationalist, learn how to interact with people in different settings, and make new friends. (Verywellmind)

You’ll have to risk rejection to feel the pain. Most people will be impressed by your actions because of the courage it requires.

2nd: Act as if.

There are or will be times when we will say “I’ve never done this before” or “I don’t know what I’m doing”. That’s the perfect time to be acting confident and follow the idea of “fake it till you make it”.

Trust me once you actually go through this you will realize that “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it will be.”

“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

3rd: Embrace the vulnerability

When you start doing things to get comfortable being uncomfortable, you will oftentimes feel vulnerable. Learning new skills will force you to think more and challenges your brain.

Failing to understand a new skill will make you feel vulnerable, or entering a new relationship, and taking up more responsibilities at work and at home.

Researcher Brené Brown who has spent decades studying vulnerability says “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.”

4th: Accept reality for what it is

You will experience situations that are not in your control such as other people’s judgment of you. To get comfortable with being uncomfortable, we need to stop arguing with reality.

There is no point in arguing what “should be” or “shouldn’t be”.

“It’s not fair that only others get paid more”
“He/She should have called me by now”
They wouldn’t do this if they cared for me”

Start accepting reality for what it is and that’s when you find the path to freedom. It’s the smartest and also the healthiest thing to do.

5th: Treat failure as a sample

You shouldn’t fear failure and think of ways to escape the embarrassment or humiliation that came with the actions you have taken.

This is why having a growth mindset is also important if you want to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. The belief you have of yourself will control your emotions and your emotions create your world.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ~Thomas Edison

Conclusion

Our brains are wired for comfort, it’s easy to binge-watch Youtube videos, and Netflix instead of exercising or maybe learning a new skill that you know will be useful.

But without growth, we slowly start to feel discontent and true happiness can only be achieved if we start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Expanding your comfort zone slowly by making sure you do things that make you uncomfortable. You will have doubts and there will be times when you make a fool out of yourself but in exchange, you will learn a lesson on what you need to do next.

Make sure you are doing it consistently. Repeating uncomfortable situations also forces your body and your mind to get used to them. Not only will you grow personally but also professionally and romantically.