This blog piece has been in my drafts for ages! Love the phrase but I couldn’t find the right way of expressing it. Thanks to an article I read yesterday, I’ve found a way of completing it! Thank you, Margie Warrell.

In various ways we hear that we should, and it’s ok to, embrace “fear” because;

• we learn to welcome & appreciate the unknown
• we discover our strengths
• we create levels of resilience
• we utilise inner & outer resources which can assist us on our aims

Fab stuff! I’m not telling you anything you don’t know already.

Consider Two Types of Comfort of Discomfort 

Type 1 – Constriction

Many people stay within what is familiar and comfortable to them. It’s natural. It’s safe.

What’s often hard for us all to observe is when someone stays within their comfort-zone and you can see or sense that they are not happy. For some reason they are afraid or feel unprepared to do what it is they really want to do.

A number of things may be going on:

• Overload: Life may be difficult right now. Change is yet another hardship. Straws and camel’s backs is not a destination location
• Perception of Ease: People often want things to happen easily. It could be because they believe other peoples’ lives are easier than their own or they have formed a habit of thinking lots and doing less. We are what we habitually do
• Anxiety: I use the word intentionally. “Be careful what you wish for”. People can be scared of the outcome and how much it could change everything or add to uncertainty. But is the alternative to stay within what you feel you know and can control?

As a result, the world seems small, constrained and frustrating.

Type 2 – Expansion

The discomfort of change, exertion, doing something different.

Yet this discomfort is about something worthwhile. It’s about expansion & improvement. It’s the opposite to the constriction of Type 1. It’s about putting effort into something that we know will bring us closer to what we want.

Therein lies the comfort of knowing that we are gaining progress. Growing pains, perhaps.

We have to accept that any change will always be hard in the beginning; whether that’s in terms of our mindset or our time or our physical ability.

We are what we habitually do. And it’s foolish to expect a different result every time if we repeatedly do what we’ve always done.

Excuse the cliché!

Summary

I appreciate this is a re-hash of many things you will have come across from various sayings, people or articles over the years. “Embrace our fear” is the usual message! And, yes, it’s true.

But fear is a real thing. Fight or flight stuff.

Anxiety is where this really sits. Knowing that we create unreal outcomes in our head. It ranges from thinking the worst or even idealising something that cannot materialise.

Comfort of Discomfort is about embracing the fact that little changes & efforts accumulate. You might not feel it at first or even along the way. But you will look back and you will see that you have learnt, you have expanded your horizons, you have become more resilient and you are able to forge paths & outcomes.

I’ve taken this image from Margie Warrell’s article. You can link through to it by clicking the image.