THE LIFE-IMPROVING VALUE OF EMBRACING DISCOMFORT

By: Robert Cooper

If you are not committed to continual constructive discomfort from
leading-edge learning and application, nothing can help you.

If you are committed to continual constructive discomfort from
leading-edge learning and application, nothing can stop you.

We are living in a comfort crisis. In so many ways, we are more comfortable in our lives and work than at any time in history. The hardwired brain loves the comfort-seeking and comfort-clutching attitudes and behaviors that fill up the lives of so many people. In most settings, the people around us, and all our competitors, are in his trap, too, so we hardly notice how much it is eroding our potential effectiveness.

There are evolutionary mind, heart, and body benefits of extending the edges of your comfort zones in how you live, lead, and learn. One of the most important choices and commitments you can make like the world’s best leaders and teams make every day is to embrace more of the discomfort of learning at the leading edge of record-setting possibilities and applying that learning. This uncomfortable approach to leadership and living can significantly improve your health and happiness and deepen and expand your understanding of what it means to be most human and alive. Here are several ways you can embrace more of the right discomfort:

Notice. Start observing how often your conscious and subconscious minds default toward mental and physical comfort. Doing what you usually do, in the way you usually do it. Sitting instead of standing. Sinking into your chair. Spacing out. Going on autopilot. Resisting new learning. Delaying fitness actions. “Polishing the past” instead of testing new ways forward. And so on. Make notes—what you discover and focus on drives growth!

Raise the resistance. As you know, muscles only grow from increased resistance and variation in angles of exercise. As leaders, to streamline and align how you think, move, plan, create, and set records, you must add more resistance. Seek new learning that stretches your mind and senses. Challenge yourself to learn at least three or four valuable new things each day and put them into practice. (Are you noticing how your brain is balking at even these relatively simple suggestions?) Carry a notepad and pen so that new and potentially challenging ideas don’t just slip away. Remember the research we mentioned on how “a pen in hand” making notes crushes the mediocre effectiveness of just thinking or typing at a keyboard.

Stand and move more than before. For over a decade, I have worked almost exclusively at a standup desk; using headphones and earphones; only sitting down at a conference table or desk to change things up, participate in a video conference, etc. I am sure you have seen the research on how deadly sitting (for too long) can be. Focus on this simple adjustment!

Left on autopilot, your brain will coax you into slumping and slouching, which cuts off up to a third of the blood and oxygen to your brain and senses. Along with standing and moving more, add some balanced load or resistance, such as wearing a light adjustable backpack with some weight in it. Another idea: Part of each day at my standing desk, when I am not having personal meetings with clients, I wear a GoRuck Weighted Training Vest: https://www.goruck.com/products/training-weight-vest; with 10 or 20 pound plates. Scientific studies now show that humans were designed to ruck, or carry weight, and this builds both brain and body fitness in ways almost no one embraces today—except Tier 1 leaders and teams.

Challenge your edges and step back more often to get ahead.” Test adding a mind-clearing, do-nothing “step backs,” of just a minute or two, every hour or two across the day to recharge your mind and body. When you can, step outside, into nature—which can multiply the positive benefits that almost everyone misses. Recent studies show this is vital for sustaining peak performance.
According to a summary of research on what is called the brain’s “default mode network,” here’s what I taught: “When we stop responding to external stimuli for just a few moments, our brains don’t do nothing, they do the most important things, helping us to have the resilience, fortitude, insight, and vision to guide us toward our most successful and satisfying lives.”

Our greatest strengths are born not from talent but from our willingness to embrace discomfort and challenge on the path to what is truly possible in life and work.

The immediate benefits and long-term return on these small, specific upgrades will pay off for you and your team many times over.