Thought Of The Day: Discomfort Is Necessary

Think we're live. Hey, guys. Happy Monday. I love Mondays. I love the start of the week. I'm not like most people. I don't think I actually look forward to Mondays and the week ahead. I hope that I ran a test, and I hope that the stream is smooth for everyone today. So if you're here, pop in and say hello. Excuse me. So today we are talking about what I've been thinking about for the last week, or actually a couple weeks, which is discomfort, and how being uncomfortable is necessary for growth. And I remember going to a gym, probably in, I don't know, 2017, 2018 or so, and they had this big sign that said something like, discomfort is necessary for growth.

And at that time, I really hadn't spent a lot of time in the personal development or self growth space, but that one really struck me. And so I realized that, yeah, in order to grow in any way, you have to be a little bit uncomfortable. Right? When you're working out, you're actually tearing muscle. You're. It's not easy when you're working with weights and pushing yourself to do these physically strenuous things, to grow and build muscle, it's not comfortable, but if you want to build that muscle and tone your body, you have to do those things, right.

So it just got me on this whole thought of discomfort. And a few weeks ago, I was spending a lot of time in doing lives, attending networking events and just all these different things. Showing up on Zoom calls with clients, which. I'm a people person. I love people, I love talking to people, but it's never completely comfortable for me. I'm a little bit. Excuse me. I'm a little bit uncomfortable about showing up in these different ways. And it doesn't ever seem to get so much better, especially on weeks where it's all in one.

Like, this is another heavy week where I'm putting myself out there and talking to a lot of different people, a lot of new people, people I'm still getting to know more, but it just. It's uncomfortable, but I have to do it. I know I do, because I have certain goals, and I know that I'm serving a purpose by putting myself out there, I'm accomplishing something important, and so it has to be done. And so I've learned that I just have to make peace with being uncomfortable. I just have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

And so yesterday, actually, I was. I was at church, and this man who stood in front of me, he was really tall, and he kept bending forward, and he kept just, like, moving around, and I was feeling a little uncomfortable for him. And I thought at first maybe he's just, like, you know, slept wrong and he's just having to stretch himself out here. But it did make me a little bit uncomfortable. And as the sermon went on, which was a little over an hour, I mean, he was twitching and moving the entire time while he stood and sat.

And I realized there must be something going on physically with him where he has, like, a twitch or something. And I had a lot of compassion for him, but I also thought, like, wow, he's. Even though he's so physically antsy or uncomfortable, he's showing up, and he could sit in the back easily, but he chose to sit where he sat, which was kind of in the middle, and grow in his faith, show up and do what he had to do to hear the word that day, to draw closer to God or whatever it was. But it just connected with what I'm speaking about today, which is just being uncomfortable for the ultimate goal of growth.

Right? So I thought about that, and then I thought about other examples and, of course, my own life. I was talking to one of our other Cadre members here. Hey, guys. Hey. Oh, there he is. Alec. We were talking about toastmasters, and I was telling him, like, every single week, it's like, what am I doing? Why did I sign myself up for this? I do not want to speak today because we have these. This section called table topics, and everybody has to. Well, not everybody, but most people, and it's always me, get called up, and you have to give, like, an impromptu speech, and I dread it.

And so I always ask myself, like, why in the world am I here? Why am I paying for this? Like, I'm doing it to myself? And last week, something confirmed, like, why I am doing this? I need to get better as a speaker and a listener, an evaluator, and all these different things that have to do with communication. But my nephew, who's getting married in July, his wife to be, reached out. I've only met her once, but, you know, she follows me on social media. We follow each other, and we connect that way.

She asked me if I would speak at their wedding, and so I. I lost it. I was so honored and blessed by that. But I thought, okay, this is why. Like, I need to continue on this path of putting myself out there and improving my communication, my speaking, because I don't know what's gonna come up. And that just one example of something really, really special that just came up for me. What else do I want to share about this. Anything you guys have to share, I will listen. I will take it, man in church.

Okay. And then on this morning, I had a morning call with a mentor. We have a group of people that we meet with every Monday. And something she said really struck me also. She said, the cost of inaction can be deadly. And I know that sounds a little extreme, but I thought when we do not take action because it's something that scares us or just feels uncomfortable, we can be really missing out on a lot, not only for ourself, but others, right? Because whatever we do, however we show up and serve, it impacts and affects others.

So when we don't take action because we have a fear or whatever else, we just don't want to go there and be in that uncomfortable space. We're really cheating ourselves and others. We're preventing a lot of powerful growth from happening. And she also said something that I love, that I want to share with you. She said, it's never a bad day to look at your daily habits. So if you find yourself in a place of mostly comfort and ease, you're probably not doing something that you should be doing to reach a new level of yourself, a higher version of yourself.

And the last thing I want to share with you is a quote, and it says, discomfort is the price of becoming legendary. Fear is just growth coming to get you. And we all need to grow. In my humble opinion, we all need to grow. We all need to develop and become our best version of ourself and just constantly strive to do the things that may be hard to do, maybe uncomfortable to do, but to help us get to that next level of ourself for the benefit of us and everybody else around us. And that is the thought for today.

So thanks, guys, for being here. And I hope this was a good word for you. And hey, Luke, happy Monday. Enjoy the rest of your day and week ahead, and I will see you again next time. Bye, guys.