There is a lot of talk about getting out of your comfort zone. Mostly, we solve this by making changes that we believe are getting us out of our comfort zone — beginning a fitness activity half-heartedly, changing jobs, ordering from a new restaurant, traveling.
The Ironman triathlon is the world’s most challenging triathlon. It consists of:
a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run.
Every year, hundreds of athletes and enthusiasts sign up for this grueling endeavor. There is another disconcerting fact about these events — participants have died in their quest to complete the race and the metaphorical barrier in their minds.
If the local 5k run had even one fatality, warning bells would go off. But in a race as challenging as the Ironman, even though safety measures are in place and only someone who is ultra-fit enough takes part, thousands still sign up to voluntarily put their bodies through a torturous ordeal.
Why do people put their bodies through so much?
Swimming in frigid water.
Running.
Puking.
Falling down thoroughly exhausted and in need of drips.
Pushing their hearts to the limit and risking heart attacks.
Each participant will have their own reasons but all of them seemingly want to accomplish one thing — get out of their comfort zones.
Why else would they do such a thing?
These are not Olympic athletes. They are mostly regular people who woke up one day and decided to challenge themselves. At the end of it, all of them feel exhilaration for completing it, even though for the most part they were in terrible pain or discomfort.
What if the same person, who after completing the Ironman had to wait in the airport for 10 hours because their flight got delayed? Would you go up to them and say “you put your body through so much, waiting for 10 hours shouldn’t be a big deal”.
Waiting in an airport when your flight gets delayed is frustrating and uncomfortable and draining, all rolled into one. It’s an endurance test for your patience but one you will never voluntarily put yourself through.
There is a lot of talk about getting out of your comfort zone. Mostly, we solve this by making changes that we believe are getting us out of our comfort zone — beginning a fitness activity half-heartedly, changing jobs, ordering from a new restaurant, traveling.
When we are truly out of our comfort zone, we feel challenged, exhilarated, a little fearful. But one word we don’t use to describe our state is discomfort.
Leaving a cushy job to turn entrepreneur can be exhilarating as well as uncertain. People do it for many reasons and whenever a seasoned professional sets foot into an entrepreneurial territory, the answer is always the same — “I got too comfortable. I was just coasting.”
Setting an audacious health goal is exciting but exercise and potion control is anything but comfortable.
Then why do we voluntarily do these things?
Recently, my wife and I were discussing a dreadful work experience of mine. She said “I knew you were unhappy. But I didn’t know you were uncomfortable.”
That was a penny drop moment for me.
When she said uncomfortable, it wasn’t a good sort of uncomfortable.
Have you ever felt or been made to feel uncomfortable by someone?
Have you worked in a place where the people and the culture made you squirm?
Have you entered a restaurant and something about the ambiance made you want to jump ship?
Have you met a prospective client whose taunting tone made you uneasy?
All of these are uncomfortable situations — but not the ones we seek to get out of our comfort zone.
No one goes “I was getting too comfortable at work so to shake things up I went to work in a toxic culture to be jolted out of my humdrum existence.”
Discomfort isn’t getting out of your comfort zone. It makes you squirm, uncertain, fearful, tentative — none of which allow you to do your best work or bring your best self forward in any situation. Discomfort keeps you from sharing, collaborating, asking, moving forward, trying and failing.
Actually getting out of your comfort zone is hard. It challenges you, teaches you and makes you grow. It’s uncomfortable but in a good way.
This means if you’re in a situation where you’re constantly second-guessing and unsure, the odds of you doing something worthy are remote. And the best thing you can do is get out of that situation and into one where you are free to explore and experiment.
Don’t confuse discomfort that stifles you for getting out of your comfort zone.
