“Comfort, the enemy of progress.” -P.T. Barnum
When I started to embrace discomfort that’s when progress began.
I know that sounds backwards, maybe even nonsensical, but they go together.
Growing up I would often ignore the feeling of discomfort. Whether I was in a situation or around certain people and the vibe felt putrid.
Only now as an adult, did I realize that feeling was an alert for me to either remove myself, observe the space I was in or most importantly level up. In a way I felt lost during those moments, I never knew how to handle the next part.
So sometimes, I had to sit in the discomfort, doing little to nothing to learn from it, or in a few cases letting it eventually phase out or find a distraction.
However, I began to recognize a pattern when discomfort would creep in.
Growth.
When I started to notice the shift in my life when I embraced it, I used the discomfort as a receptor that something needed to change or change was about to happen. Frustration and irritation are going to be felt, that’s inevitable. However, that’s an indicator that you’re not supposed to stay the same. That’s an indicator that it’s time for you to level up. That’s an indicator that your mind is shifting to the reality that you’ve been working so hard for.
Discomfort and pain are forms of awareness, informing us that something needs to be shifted. I know it’s easy to spiral in the discomfort and feel lost while you’re trying to figure a way out of it, but accept the discomfort as a friend. Use it as a tool to send you on a trajectory to your next level. Discomfort is a learning opportunity, Life’s teaching moment.
It will hurt, sometimes like hell.
It may cause some anxiety.
It will feel unfair. Life is.
It will definitely feel overwhelming.
But the reward.
The reward that you will receive because you allowed yourself to grow, to heal, to level up, to use the discomfort as a tool instead of an obstacle.
The reward that will come because you decided to do it scared, even when fear was snarling its teeth at you.
The reward that will envelop you because you knew “I’m better than this.”
Educate yourself while you’re in the discomfort.
Life Lessons from a Novice 