You NEED to Pursue Your Discomforts - Here’s Why
The idea of ‘pursuing discomfort’ is one that gets thrown around a lot in the self-improvement space.
And it makes sense – when followed, it’s a principle that leads to a disproportionate amount of growth, at least when compared to other ways you might spend your time.
However, something that often gets glossed over is the why. Why should you be pursuing discomfort? What do you have to gain?
Well, the obvious answer is that pursuing discomfort helps you expand what you’re capable of. As you engage with your discomforts, you gradually become more comfortable with them and more competent overall.
It’s true but I think it’s missing a key ingredient, something which is perfectly summarised by Joseph Campbell’s famous quote:
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
I’ve underlined the word “treasure” because I believe that to be important here.
It’s not just that pursuing discomfort enables you to expand your capabilities. It’s that the capabilities you improve while pursuing discomfort are the most important ones – your treasure.
Another way to put it is that pursuing discomfort will lead you to the growth that you want the most. Any other pursuit would be superficial by comparison.
To use a fear of heights as an example, reading a book about overcoming the fear might help, but the real progress lies in direct confrontation – exposure to heights in person. Your treasure lies at the end of the hard path, not the easy one.
And all of this makes sense.
After all, the areas you’re most afraid of are inevitably the areas in which you most need to improve because you’ve been avoiding them, and probably for a long time.
You’ve continued to grow in other areas but have remained stagnant in areas of discomfort. And the more uncomfortable something makes you, the more true this probably is.
This might sound disheartening but don’t worry, it gets better.
Because you’ve remained dormant in these areas, they’ve become low hanging fruit – areas where you’re likely to develop quickly. This is because when things are underdeveloped, they have the benefit of playing catchup and can move faster as a result.
For example, when you’ve gained experience building muscles in the gym, building an underdeveloped muscle becomes quick and easy. For one thing, you have the knowledge and experience. You know what exercises will work, how hard to push when training, as well as when to rest. On top of that, your body also understands the assignment – it’s built muscle before. The end result is a muscle that builds strength rapidly in order to catch up to the surrounding muscles.
Keep this comforting idea in mind – when you engage with discomfort, you grow significantly faster than you otherwise would.
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, this article has become a warning against complacency and overpreparation.
The odds are good that reading one more book isn’t going to be the thing that gets you to your desired destination.
Instead, it’s likely going to be taking that uncomfortable step. The thing you already know you should be doing but have been shamefully delaying.
For most, this will mean confronting a fear of social judgement.
Maybe it’s asking a girl out, while accepting that she might reject you.
Maybe it’s forgetting about the 5-minute home workouts and going to the gym, while accepting that random strangers might look at you funny.
Or maybe it’s just picking up a new skill and accepting that you’re practically guaranteed to look silly at the beginning because you have no clue what you’re doing.
Whatever it is, remember that engaging with it, however uncomfortable it might be, is exactly how you’ll find your treasure – the growth that you’ve been after.
It’s how you’ll become badass.