Seek Discomfort.

You need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable if you ever want to achieve your goals. This is true for any type of goal that you set: fitness, career, academic, or even relationship-related. You can apply this way of life to literally ANYTHING.

Have you ever been in a position that felt fine, not good or great, but FINE, and you knew you wanted more and that this was not where you wanted to be for the rest of your life?However, you were COMFORTABLE and you knew that in order to get where you wanted to be, you would have to let go of that comfort and endure through a period of discomfort before getting to where you wanted to be.

This Applies to Everything:

Most people in this situation would constantly delay the transition period (stay in the job/program they don't enjoy, stay in the relationship they saw going no where, keep pushing their diets back, ... the examples are infinite).

Do you enjoy your job, is it your dream job? If not, why are you still working there? Did you tell yourself that the job was going to be temporary and somehow have been there for much longer than you anticipated? Do you worry about the feeling of discomfort that you will experience if you quit and work towards your dreams? The truth is, there are usually on 2 routes that you can take: 1) You can stay in your comfort zone and always look back with regret and wonder "what if". 2) Or you can progress towards your dream and push through the temporary discomfort. If you prefer the 2nd option, the next question is WHEN?! When will you start the journey?

The Sooner You Seek Discomfort, The Better:

When will you start the journey towards your dreams? You need to realize that our days are numbered. Every second you spend in your comfort zone is a second you never get back, a second that could have been better spent. Therefore, the sooner you start the journey towards your goal, the longer you spend living your dream!

Let me use this picture of an individual looking up at the peak of a mountain to explain my argument. This person is currently on flat ground that feels comfortable because it does not force the individual to have to climb anything to navigate around. However, the view is blocked by a cloud and that individual has always dreamt of going to the peak and enjoying the view from above the clouds for as long as possible. With that being said, the journey to the peak isn't easy as the individual must climb up a steep face as opposed to staying on the flat ground. For the sake of the argument, let's assume this individual has 10 hours before they have to leave the mountain altogether. That individual knows that they will strongly regret not seeing the view from the peak if they leave without making the climb. Additionally, if they stay where they are and only begin the journey 9 hours later, they will only experience the view for 1 hour before they have to leave. On the other hand, if they instantaneously begin the journey, then they can enjoy the view for the entire 10 hours. The peak is your dream job/physique/relationship... Why not spend the rest of your life, from this moment forward, living your dream versus pushing it back and reducing the time you could spend living your dream? The mountain is always going to be there, the only question is: When will you start the climb?

Proof that Growth Happens When you Seek Discomfort:

If you want something that you've never had, you must be willing to do something that you've never done. - Thomas Jefferson

This is true for anything you do, but I will explain it in the context of the human body. Your body is built to be an efficient machine that meets the needs that you place on it. If you go to the gym and hit the same workout week after with the same intensity, your body has already adapted to these needs and has no reason to grow. Many people exercise like this because they get used to that intensity, but then they get surprised when their body isn't changing. On the other hand, you can push a little bit past what your body is comfortable is with by increasing the weights, or hitting an extra few reps than you did the workout before, that is when you see GROWTH! Your body was taken by surprise and adapts when you rest so that the next time you hit that same workout, it will be ready, but little does your body know that the next workout will push your body a little bit further again to a new limit, forcing your muscles to adapt once more. This cycle goes on and on until you achieve the physical conditioning that you desire and only at that point there is nothing wrong with being comfortable.

Anecdotes of Seeking Discomfort:

One of the things that used to stress me out more than anything else was talking to strangers and talking in front of crowds. If you personally know me, you know that I have come a long way from there. I have always known that I want to be a leader in the community and to help individuals become the best versions of themselves. I didn't know how I would ever do this if I were too afraid to interact with new people.

In my first year at university, I made an announcement in front of 200+ students because I was running for a position on the student council of my program. I will never forget that day because of how nervous I was. I remember my left leg starting to shake a few seconds into the announcement and looking down at the first 2 rows to see if any of my peers noticed the shaking. In addition, I was stuttering continuously and my heart was pounding in my chest. I did not come out of the elections victorious, but I came out questioning my fear of public speaking. I realized that I had nothing to fear. THE FEAR ITSELF was the only thing preventing me from being a leader in the community. The fear was the reason my leg was shaking and the reason I was stuttering. What is the worst thing that could have happened? Me losing the elections? I did lose, but from the perspective of a third party: I did not gain anything, and I did not lose anything that I already had either. In fact, I did gain something; I overcame my fear of talking to strangers and public speaking by putting myself in the position that felt uncomfortable to me. As a result of moving past this fear, I started planning study sessions, outings, and intramural teams for my peers. I went on to run for several leadership roles in my program, university, and surrounding community and am currently the President of my program's student council and one of the 2 directors of McMaster MotionBallU, a subcommittee of an organization that raises awareness and money for the Special Olympics. I only share this with you to show that I personally seek discomfort regularly and endure through it. I attribute many of my successes to this habit and I hope that these blogs encourage you to develop new habits that make you better versions of yourselves. Believe me, pushing through the discomfort and achieving your goals is addictive. Once you do it with one goal, this spark within you ignites and drives you to try this method of life with all your other goals.

This picture is of myself and some great individuals that I met during the program during a spontaneous to Quebec City, 2 hours away from Chicoutimi..

I slowly started applying this way of living to bigger things and one day I decided to do a 5-week French program in Chicoutimi, a city in Quebec, where most people did not speak English and a city where I knew absolutely no one. This was a big step for me as I had never been away from my family for that long. However, this trip turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life, I met many amazing locals and individuals doing the program with me that I am still in contact with to this day. I made a video of the trip under the "Travel" Category. Everyone in that video was a stranger to me on the first day of the trip, but you can easily tell how much that changed. I still remember the moments prior to when I accepted the offer to the program. I was afraid of going to a place where everyone around me was a stranger and a place where the main language spoken was one that I was not fluent in. I know for a fact that accepting the offer was the right choice. Even though I was nervous from the moment that I accepted the offer to the day when I arrived in Chicoutimi, I would have definitely regretted declining the offer.

Here is a quote about interacting with strangers since that was one of the biggest things that I was uncomfortable with:

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't met yet. -William Butler Yeats

Why I chose "Seek Discomfort" as the title:

The title of this Blog was taken from Yes Theory, a group of creative youtubers who are promoting the message of Seeking Discomfort. I found this motto very appealing and just had to use it because I love what they stand for. I strongly suggest that you check out their videos on Youtube as they "seek discomfort" in many different ways and add an entertaining twist to it.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk more about the topics of this post and/or want to share your stories of how you got comfortable with being uncomfortable. I would love to connect with you! I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this post if you enjoyed it!

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