Comfort can be extremely dangerous. It has the power to transform you into someone or something that isn’t who you are or who you want to be – and can prevent you from doing the things you actually should be doing.

On the other hand, being uncomfortable, allows you to be flexible in life and accomplish the things you want to do. Keep reading to learn how you can become comfortable with your discomfort.

Comfortable vs. Uncomfortable: Which is better?

Everyone loves being comfortable. However, too much comfort can make us sit on the couch too long, eat too much, watch too many things that we shouldn’t be watching, and even make us lazy. While it might make us feel great in the moment, being too comfortable can ultimately harm us in the long run.

On the other hand, discomfort – being uncomfortable – is actually a positive thing when it comes to our minds and bodies. Here’s a great example: going to the gym might make you extremely uncomfortable in the moment. It’s hard to push yourself to work out and doing cardio and sweating like crazy is probably super uncomfortable for most of us.

While we’re uncomfortable in the moment, the end results of going to the gym are amazing. If you can feel comfortable with being uncomfortable – like you do when you go to the gym – you’ll end up with tremendous gains, and a rewarding sense of accomplishing something that felt like you couldn’t.Being comfortable with the uncomfortable is actually a life skill you can teach yourself. When you have consistency, the uncomfortable actually becomes the habit – and becomes something that we can be really driven in. The habit becomes comfortable, and creates other steps to being successful in life.

Be Flexible

How you react in situations that are uncomfortable makes all the difference. The ability to be flexible in the moment and turn an uncomfortable situation around for your benefit is key.

I always think back to growing up in a big family. We would start telling a story – and get interrupted not very long into it. There could be four other stories going on at the same time around us. So, we’d have to bob and weave to be flexible by taking the story that someone else interrupted with, bring yours right back in, and still be able to tell the story you wanted to tell from the beginning.

While you might actually be uncomfortable when someone else interrupts you to tell their story, listening, following, learning, and being flexible enough to bring it back around will help keep someone’s interest.

 Look at the End Result of What You’re Trying to Accomplish

At the end of each year, we usually start to assess all the things that didn’t get done the past year. Maybe we think of some of the things we didn’t accomplish and all the disappointments we had. At the same time, it’s a good idea to look back on all the things we’re grateful for, and look at the challenges that we had – that we learned and grew from in the end.

Ever since COVID-19 hit the world, we’ve all been terribly uncomfortable. There have been a lot of disappointments. We lost people, and have had to learn to live with being uncomfortable. It hasn’t been an easy time for anyone. But, when you look at the end result, this time has taught us new comforts as well.

We’ve been uncomfortable when we couldn’t leave the house, but we found out how to work from home. Maybe you found comfort in waking up without having to rush to get ready for work and sit in traffic. Maybe our kids found comfort in going to school in a setting that they literally sleep and eat in.

Moms and dads became teachers and may have been incredibly uncomfortable doing it – but they taught their kids resilience. It definitely isn’t easy, but the end result of discomfort can teach us so many things. If we embrace it, we gain seriously important life skills.

What Makes You Uncomfortable?

  • Is it what you see when you look in the mirror?
  • Have you become someone that doesn’t represent what you want to be?
  • Is it your career?
  • Is it your current pace of life?
  • Are you just too comfortable with everything?
  • Is that comfort making you bored?

Share Your Life Skills

You might do things that make you uncomfortable all the time. Maybe you started off being uncomfortable at your job. Over time, you learned how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The great thing about it, is that if you can get comfortable with what you’re doing, people feel it. They can feel that you’re comfortable – and understand that it’s your true self. The message you’re sharing can have great value and a great impact on others and can help them gain those skills themselves.

Being comfortable with being uncomfortable will help you the next time you’re telling a story in front of others, the next time you’re in front of a camera, or the next time you put on an outfit you don’t feel super comfortable in. It’ll help you stretch, learn, and grow.

What have you been uncomfortable with this year?

How has it allowed you to grow?

What you do when you start feeling too comfortable? What are your strategies?