Be Uncomfortable

‘Failures do what is tension relieving while winners do what is goal achieving.’

-Dennis Waitley

‘The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled.  For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.’

-M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

‘The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start.  The fellow who sits still and does just what he is told will never be told to do big things.’

-Charles M. Schwab

                                ‘And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.’

-Erica Jong

Remember back to your very first day of something big; your first job right out of school, your first day of college, or your first day at a new school. 

I was scared and uncomfortable when I walked through that door.  These are some of my most vivid and intense memories.  The unexpected is difficult, the questions you ask; will they like me? What is everyone else going to be like?  Did I dress the right way?  Wow, what a difficult and uncomfortable situation.  I get a little nervous even reliving some of those memories.

Now think about all that you learned from those experiences as a whole, not just that first day; your first job, college, elementary school, high school.  You are probably flooded with a host of memories; all of the friendships, accomplishments etc.  I am sure that you undoubtedly learned a lot during that time.  It is important to remember this fact; you would have none of those memories and accomplishments if you didn’t have that very first uncomfortable day.

All of the experiences that I listed above you could describe as pretty much mandated.  You have to go to school for a certain period of time, at some point you have to experience a first day of work.  However, the lesson can be extrapolated to any experience.  In order to grow, achieve, and experience success, you must start by first being uncomfortable.  You must force yourself to be put in positions and try things that make you uncomfortable, that you fear.  We need tension to grow and achieve.  We need to break out of our comfortable habits to move forward.

Almost without exception, when I speak with people about their ‘risky’ decisions, and by ‘risky’ I mean perceived by others as ‘risky’ and that were uncomfortable for the person, they only talk about how glad they are that they took that respective plunge.  Mind you, this includes ones that didn’t turn out well.  Categorically, people look back and positively reflect on what they learned and who they became when they did something uncomfortable. 

It is important that we look for opportunities to be uncomfortable.  Go take a ballroom dancing class even though you are self conscious about your dancing, go join a speaking club like Toastmasters if you fear public speaking, learn how to use a new computer program even though you are intimidated by computers.

In order to grow as a person, you must first be uncomfortable.

Kyle C. Ryan