Get Uncomfortable

5/8/20 - Get Uncomfortable

Without knowing it, I believe that has been one of my mantras since I was a young man. For some reason certain memories stick out in my mind. One of them I have to attribute to my Dad, who has always been my leading mentor and guide. I started working out one morning in the Corporate gym for the company I was interning with. During that time I roamed around, tried different machines and worked up a little bit of a sweat. At the end I stepped on the Elliptical to give it a try, as I had never been on one before. Quickly I realized that this was not easy, raised the resistance, lowered the resistance and got off of it. That was enough.

When I came home that night I was reflecting on this to my Dad, telling him how much I hated the one machine. His response, which still rings out in my head, “Then that is what you should do.” The general idea, if it is hard, then you should be doing it. I don’t recall if we dug much deeper than that, but the idea is pretty simple. If it is hard, then you have to keep working at it, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Everything gets easier with practice.

When I got into running, 2 miles was difficult, then as I grew it took up to 15 miles to get difficult. You get the idea. Then I shifted to CrossFit, using a barbell was hard, and my legs hated it. Now I look forward to grabbing that barbell and getting after that lift that was so hard.

So how does this apply? It’s simple, if you are too comfortable it is time to get out of your comfort zone. If you have been in the same role, same place, same people and you know the ways around everything it is time to stretch yourself. The only way to grow muscle is to stretch it to the point that it tears just a little. Then it rebuilds itself bigger than before. We are the same for our work and skills, if we don’t try new things we get comfortable, we stay flat and while you try to grow, you never get any because you are not exercising your skills any differently. What can you do, how can you stretch yourself.

First, don’t wait for your boss to give you that stretch assignment. You have to find it, you have to go after it. It is up to you to find that next opportunity that will strengthen you. Then regardless of whether you succeed or fail, you will grow, you will learn from it and apply it to that next stretch assignment. Do NOT let failure stop you, keep going, keep trying. You will never hit that mark if you don’t keep going for it.

One last thing, stretching yourself is a must do in all aspects of our lives, we have to get to the edge of that comfort zone in order to expand that comfort zone. That is how you grow muscle for all aspects of YOU.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Killing Comfort by Jerred Moon: Great, simple read. Pushes you to see where you are comfortable and to see where you might be able to stretch yourself more.