For all the effort people put into avoiding discomfort, does it work? Can you, through focused effort, minimize your personal experience of discomfort in life? I don’t think so.
Attempts to minimize discomfort create three consequences:
- Delay your discomfort to a later time.
- Transfer your discomfort to another part of your life.
- Increase your discomfort.
One usually triggers another. Delaying discomfort increases discomfort, and increasing discomfort transfers to other parts of your life.
Discomfort is necessary and unavoidable. I don’t want to live in discomfort. I assume you don’t either. But I also know that I will experience discomfort no matter how hard I try to orchestrate my way around it.
Instead of putting effort into hiding from discomfort in the hope of escaping it, disciplining yourself to handle discomfort with strength is a better target. When you start to anticipate some discomfort and feel that internal desire to escape it, remind yourself that you can’t. You’ll only delay it, transfer it, or increase it.
Tell yourself it’s ok to be uncomfortable. There’s nothing wrong with it. Discomfort is a natural and normal human experience, and not something that isn’t supposed to happen to you. Assure yourself that experiencing discomfort is productive with the right mindset and discipline.
Don’t go through life weakly, running away from discomfort. The stories of history deliver a clear warning, using the lives of those who have tried as cautionary tales. Use your energy to turn discomfort into wisdom, strength, and progress.
Answer the call. Do the work.
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