Make Yourself Uncomfortable.
Talking to a friend earlier this week, she mentioned her very high tolerance for uncomfortable situations, and how that characteristic, perverse as it may appear, has consistently improved and enriched her life. Her ability to make a home for herself in the space where things get tricky, has allowed her to move beyond her own perceived limits, meet people and even achieve goals that, at one time, she believed were far above her pay grade.
You know me: I absolutely adore it when people tell me stories of how they kicked their own ass. After all, in my own life, I was forced to admit to myself that I was getting far too comfortable being miserable, in order to stop whining and start enacting my personal/professional goals. When I got uncomfortable, for example, with my tedious excuses about why I wasn’t ready to be an entrepreneur, I had no choice but to cry feel sorry for myself whine get to work. When I became uncomfortable pretending that “one day” I’d get around to founding my coaching business, I decided to make “one day” right now.
We live in a world obsessed with convenience, and hey, I get it, I’m not a Luddite. Convenience is awesome…to a limit. Convenience, when coupled with your (understandable) anxiety about the risks and reality that goes into change, big or small, is extremely hazardous to your ambition. Who hasn’t remained far too long in meaningless jobs or relationships, simply because it’s easy? The irony of course is that the easiest things end up being terribly hard.
Right about now, many of us are making New Year’s resolutions to carpe diem and Live Our Most Authentic Lives. But why wait? Why pamper our anxieties? You want to change your life? Bueno! Take one solid, positive action today. Make yourself uncomfortable today. It won’t get any easier just because the calendar reads January 1, 2016.
As you well know, the men and women you admire, committed, at various crossroads in their own chaotic lives, to being terribly uncomfortable, knowing that it was the only way they could, over time, learn to be truly comfortable in their own skin.
Anais Nin quotes authentic lives carpe diem how to change your life how to make a life you love life lessons living your most authentic life true story tips on changing your life why being uncomfortable is good for you