Our modern lifestyles breed and glorify comfort. We have events, food, products, and endless entertainment options all delivered at the press of a button. The drawback is, comfort breeds shortsightedness and complacency. It convinces us that goals aren’t really worth the effort; that we’re just fine where we are.
Ironically, we’ve accepted the idea that feeling uncomfortable is a signal of danger or failure. The truth is, being uncomfortable is part of growing and essential to progress. We live in an “on demand” culture, but character, careers, and success still require years to develop and build.
Life is not about being comfortable. Life is about growing, and continuously becoming a better person, which, necessarily, is not comfortable. Feeling uncomfortable is not the enemy – being lulled into a warm cocoon, where everything is fine and nothing advances or changes, is the enemy. Atrophy and apathy are the enemy.
Therefore, we must continue to press forward beyond the edges of our comfort zones. We must endeavor, question, and explore the ideas, talents, areas that are just beyond our comfort zones. We must challenge ourselves.
Don’t shrink back from being uncomfortable. Embrace it and persevere through it. Choose to find opportunities to grow, and discomfort will never be wasted.
You can accomplish incredible things. This isn’t meant to be the kind of repeat to yourself in the mirror affirmation you might see on a bumper sticker. You are a human, on the internet, capable of reading and comprehension. By definition, you possess the ability to learn and grow and achieve beyond your own expectations. The allure of comfort, though, stands between the person you are now and that potential greatness.
It is the truth. The great people we read about accomplishing astonishing things all throughout history were not invincible, nor were they alloted more time in a day to perform heroic feats. Many of them lived in times and circumstances considered filthy and cruel by today’s standards. Yet, they chose to endure – to remain uncomfortable until that discomfort forged an outcome in their favor. It’s easy to glorify exceptional people, until you realize they each had to overcome their own sorry circumstances. It takes a decision to be alright with being uncomfortable. That discomfort can present itself in different ways.
Sometimes, we have to deal with unjust circumstances.
Jack Johnson was born into a racist society. A black man from Galveston, Texas, Johnson’s entire life was characterized by fighting to live life as he thought fit. As a young man, Johnson fought exhibitions??black fights akin to gladiator bouts for entertainment of the white elites. Johnson, with his towering stature and thick forearms, won every bout. He pummeled his way through his competition, quickly becoming the Colored Heavyweight Champion. In Reconstruction Era Texas, the unwritten rule was the Heavyweight title belonged only to whites. Johnson challenged this rule.
The white champion, Jim Jeffries refused to fight Johnson for years, claiming that when there were no white fighters left to defeat, he would quit. After years of requests and public calls to defend white honor, and only after another man fought and lost to Johnson, Jeffries accepted the challenge. After eight bloody rounds, Johnson knocked out the champion, becoming the undisputed champion. He would hold the heavyweight title he would hold for the next eight years. His success in the ring, however, earned him the ire of whites outside the ring, who viewed him as a disruptor.
On top of his success, Johnson was a fan of fast cars, and dated and married white women. He also dressed in rather flashy suits and hats, and make no pretense of hiding his wealth or success. This made him something of a pariah in society. White police officers endlessly ticketed and harassed him. White writers and public opinion clamored to find a way to humble this challenger. This effort culminated in trumped up charges of the Mann Act, a law prohibiting men from transporting women across state lines for “immoral purposes.”
At his trial, Johnson was convicted by an all white jury, and sentenced to a year in prison. To avoid prison, Johnson fled to Europe. Years later, after being out of practice, Johnson would lose his title in a match in Cuba, and return to the US to serve his prison sentence. He later fought in exhibitions, but never again professionally.
Johnson was dealt an unfair hand from the start, being born into a society which considered him second-rate at best. Johnson’s spirit would not be overcome, though. He knew he was stronger, better, and faster than anyone standing across the ring from him. He proved as much. He persevered despite the deplorable treatment society gave him. He overcame this mistreatment, though, and succeeded despite the efforts of those who despised him. He wanted to live life on his terms, embodied perseverance, and earned a title in the process. While he didn’t set out to be a civil rights icon, his strength and resilience have inspired millions over the past century.
Other times, we have to boldly make the right decision, even when the odds are against us.
Tom Crean was an Irish explorer, surviving an incredible three separate expeditions to the frozen continent. He never wrote about his treks, and perhaps this is one reason his name isn’t quite as well known as Captain Robert Falcon Scott or Ernest Shackleton, both of whom he accompanied to Antarctica. Crean was born into a poor working-class family, and joined the military at fifteen, lying about his age in order to serve in the British Royal Navy.
In 1912, during Captain Scott’s fateful expedition to the South Pole, Crean’s party, composed of two other men, was separated from the ship and crew and short on rations. The party of three, with one man deadly ill from scurvy, found themselves miles from civilization and in desperate need of food and medical attention. The only option was for Crean to hike alone thirty-five miles to the nearest outpost for help. Somehow, Crean made the incredible journey, with only three biscuits and two chocolate sticks for food, in eighteen hours. Persevering through bitter winds and sub-zero temperatures, Crean successfully made it to Hut Point and saved his crew-mates lives.
Crean endured conditions any other person would have deemed impossible. Most people would have assessed the situation, called it a death wish, and refused. No one would have blamed them, either.
Yet, this Irishman overcame those dour odds, put himself through unimaginable strain and physical exertion, and rescued his shipmates – saving their lives. It would be tempting to attribute this show of resilience to bravery and the brotherhood characteristic of military heroism – and there may be some truth to that. The fact remains that Crean found himself in an unfavorable situation, not of his own making, and persevered through the discomfort. His decision to carry on through deplorable conditions was the difference between life and death for dozens of men.
More often, we come face to face with the truth that we must improve our weaknesses in order to obtain what we want in life.
Theodore Roosevelt was born into a weak body and afflicted with asthma from a young age. In his autobiography, Roosevelt tells of a boyhood encounter which changed his outlook on his own abilities,
“Having an attack of asthma, I was sent off by myself to Moosehead Lake. On the stage-coach ride thither I encountered a couple of other boys who were about my own age, but very much more competent and also much more mischievous. I have no doubt they were good-hearted boys, but they were boys! They found that I was a foreordained and predestined victim, and industriously proceeded to make life miserable for me.”
Roosevelt continues,
“The experience taught me what probably no amount of good advice could have taught me. I made up my mind that I must try to learn so that I would not again be put in such a helpless position; and having become quickly and bitterly conscious that I did not have the natural prowess to hold my own, I decided that I would try to supply its place by training. Accordingly, with my father’s hearty approval, I started to learn to box. I was a painfully slow and awkward pupil, and certainly worked two or three years before I made any perceptible improvement whatever.”
Beginning a daily regimen of calisthenics, cardio, and weight lifting, the young Roosevelt built up his physical endurance and strength, virtually ending his deadly struggle with asthma. A young man shouldn’t have to worry about his physical health, shouldn’t have to worry about being strong enough to see adulthood. Roosevelt could have complained that his body was faulty, that he simply wasn’t made to be strong. Plenty of people would have understood and sympathized. Complaining about being uncomfortable and undersized would not have accomplished much, though, and almost certainly have deprived the nation of a remarkable scholar and statesman. Instead, Roosevelt embraced discomfort as a means of achieving more. It’s not too dramatic to say he was fighting for his own life and place of influence in the world.
Roosevelt overcame being a small, sickly child and became not only an athlete and avid outdoorsman, but a scholar and leader of the free world. He lived by his own mantra of the “strenuous life.” What does the strenuous life look like for you? What are you working toward? It’s going to take grit and determination and it will not always feel like you are making any headway, understand that now. However, perseverance can’t be won any other way – we don’t learn to persevere by watching, but by doing. It’s not comfortable, it’s not glamorous, and it feels like failure, but in reality, that determination is working in you and for you.
We all face situations where we are legitimately short-changed, whether it’s a disability, an illness, being born into a war-torn country, social injustice, etc. We can all point to an area where we should have been treated better. What are you going to make of it, though? What is the next step for you to take? Those decisions and circumstances have already happened – what are you going to do to make sure you change the outcome? How can you use that situation to improve yourself, to ensure you succeed, despite the actions or inactions of others?
None of these situations would be described as comfortable. All of these men overcame odds through perseverance. By refusing to remain the same, these men all made history.
All three of these men faced situations they never should have had to. They were all dealt injustice in some way – a racist society, being overlooked for an opportunity, and being born small and prone to sickness – but they all overcame these challenges and succeeded to live life on their own terms. Use the challenge, the boulder standing in your way, as an opportunity. Overcome and dominate. Do the work that lays before.
Comfort denies greatness. It’s not in our power to control external events, but we do get to decide how we respond to those events. We get to choose to endure, persevere, and move toward greatness.
You don’t have to be a world-class athlete or future world leader to practice perseverance. Let these examples inspire you to take steps outside your own comfort zone. Remember, the point is to grow daily. Maybe that means making a meal instead of grabbing take out. Maybe it’s going for a run instead of watching television, or maybe it’s cracking open that book you’ve been meaning to read all summer. Do something uncomfortable everyday. Get comfortable being challenged. Discomfort is only the end of the story if you decide it is. Endure, and receive the rewards of your efforts. Let the discomfort of continual progress refine you into an exceptional talent.
