When I reflect on things I’ve always wanted to achieve but haven’t, I can spot a pattern.

It’s usually that I was avoiding some sort of discomfort. Whether it was something I never bothered to start or something I did but soon gave up. It’s usually the same story.

The reason for not achieving big things is rarely due to a lack of resources. More often, it’s down to not putting in the work needed or simply not getting started. It’s always much easier to choose the path of least resistance and stay in my comfort zone.

Let’s be clear here, this isn’t always because the thing is difficult or painful in the typical sense. It might be that the process is easy, but the repetitions needed make it boring, tedious or not as appealing as the alternatives. Either way, it presents some sort of discomfort and the goal doesn’t get achieved.

Now, I’m going to be bold here and guess that the same is true for you too. At the end of the day, we’re both humans and that’s what we do.

But think about this for a moment…

Imagine what your life could be like if, instead of avoiding discomfort, you embraced a mindset where you actually enjoyed pain and work. A mindset where you didn’t always want to feel cosy and comfortable. A mindset where you thrived in situations that left you feeling worn out —where you looked for them!

What could you achieve each day if that was how you operated?

What would your life be like now if you had already been doing that for years?

What things have you been avoiding that you would have already conquered?

I see this playing out all the time with people trying to learn a new skill. One of the most important ingredients for developing a new skill is consistency. But consistency can be uncomfortable — it can be boring and tedious.

This leads to most people learning in waves of effort and consistency.

They start off with a huge amount of motivation as they get excited about achieving the end goal. Then, as they spend more time out of their comfort zone working on the skill, the motivation starts to decline. After a while, they’ll hit an obstacle that’s going to take more work, or something else will come up that provides a distraction — and suddenly, the consistency ends.

Weeks, months, maybe even years later, they’ll remember how much they wanted that skill. They’ll forget about the effort, the boredom and the pain, and they’ll focus on the pleasure of achieving the end goal. Until they hit that wall again.

It’s a constant cycle of two steps forward, one step back.

After a while, they might reflect on how long they’ve been ‘learning’ for and wonder why they haven’t made much progress. They’ll see others who have been doing it for a much shorter amount of time and are now lapping them.

It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing and it’s a huge waste of time. In the end, avoiding discomfort in the short term has led to longer-term downsides.

You see, life is sort of like one big workout.

If you go to the gym and want to grow, you have to put your body under stress. When you stop doing this for some time, you start to decline. Likewise, if you want to grow in other ways, the same principle applies.

Rather than trying to escape discomfort when building skills or growing as a person, we should be embracing it. We should be finding situations that will stretch us mentally and physically. Situations where we are forced to dig deep and grow to overcome the new challenge.

If we always stop when we start hitting the uncomfortable part, we won’t grow. We need to understand that our goals will usually require discomfort and life is not always about going down the path of least resistance.

We need to be aware of the pain and the struggle, but then find a way to push through anyway. We need to learn to enjoy it and look for those situations rather than avoiding them. The outcome on the other side will be growth and fulfilment that will change our lives.

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