Settling for Comfortable

“Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re hiding out in the comfortable zone.”
— Seth Godin

 

One of the most insidious things ailing our world right now, and jeopardizing our future generations, is the squandering of human potential.

With the growing trend of pleasure-based and convenience-obsessed living, we are falsely entraining ourselves to see comfort, and avoidance of discomfort, as the means to creating a happy, disturbance free life.

When in fact, settling for comfortable – doing things the ways we’ve always done them or avoiding the hard changes we know we need to make – condemns us to stay frozen in time.

We stagnate into a living time capsule of our own potential, leading to inevitable future regrets of all that could have been if we had been willing to get uncomfortable to become more of who we could have been.

The fertile growth soil we need to catalyze ourselves into higher versions of who we are and what we are capable of is found just beyond the borders of what is familiar to you today.

Whether it be how you do relationships, how you communicate, how you approach conflict, or how you handle failure and vulnerability, all that you are now has the native potential to improve, deepen, and expand.

The choice is yours, and will perhaps be the most life defining one you make.

If you are essentially doing and being in the same or similar ways as you have the last 5 years then you are stalled my friend. It’s time to get unsettled about being too settled.

Aside from our own duty to cultivate all that’s possible within us as individuals, we as leaders have the responsibility to regularly challenge our people into discomfort so they don’t stall out and shrink under our leadership.

If your people see you routinely breaking out of your routines and defaults, it will create a culture that says success comes from seeking to push past what is known, predictable, and safe – not from doing what we already know we can do.

We can either catalyze continuous growth in ourselves and others by regularly creating new challenges that disrupt our norms, or we will be a model of safe-sameness that will ultimately be the permanent parking spot for our potential.

Have a Come to Jesus conversation with yourself today to uncover if you are unknowingly (or knowingly) missing opportunities to grow, improve, and change by avoiding the uncomfortable things.

As the author describes in his “growth rings” philosophy, it’s where instability and stability intersect that we enter into high growth mode.

Find new ways to challenge your comfort zones, and create frequent opportunities for your teams to press in further to unlock all they are capable of.

The performance and happiness rewards from walking off your known map will far exceed the awkward, painful, and bumpy learning curves.

Coach Faith

 



 

How to Create a High Growth Team by Embracing Discomfort

“You may have heard that a manager’s job is to remove obstacles so their team can perform its best. Bill offers an alternative perspective. The role of a manager is to teach our team members how to remove obstacles for themselves. We are so attracted to the comfort of order and familiarity that we often avoid putting ourselves or others in situations where we are challenged. But that doesn’t help anyone. By embracing complexity, we unleash potential. As uncomfortable as it may be, the truth is growth only comes through discomfort.“

Read Article HERE

Why Comfort Will Ruin Your Life | Bill Eckstrom

Watch the Ted Talk HERE

Faith Csikesz

Faith Csikesz

CLBC, Founder, Principal Coach

Accelerated Leadership Development
Executive & Professional Coach; Leadership Advisor

Faith Csikesz is a highly requested Executive Coach with a proven track record of nearly two decades of leadership coaching, organizational development, performance innovation and talent diagnostics.