Get in the ‘Discomfort’ Zone
Recently, I wrote about how growth and obtaining a better life requires a bit of a stretch, some discomfort, and dealing with some fear. Today, I want to focus on how to work on discomfort.
When it comes to learning and developing yourself there are three zones for the sake of our discussion - the comfort, discomfort, and overload zones.
When you’re in your comfort zone, you’re not feeling challenged, and you don’t have to try very hard. The overload zone is when there is too much or is too hard, or both happening. Think of a restaurant when it is understaffed, and they struggle with getting you your order. Since it is overwhelming, there is little to no growth. The discomfort zone is a mixture of known and unknowns. The things that are familiar allow you to feel some confidence, and the unknowns make you stretch. This is the ideal place for learning and growing.
Let’s use physical strength as an example. Let’s say you want to get stronger by doing pushups, but you can only do 10 pushups. What if I told you to do 30? Your body wouldn’t be able to handle it, give out halfway, and maybe hurt something as well. You have overloaded your body. On the flip side, you can do 10, but you only do five. Will your body get stronger? Maybe a little bit because it’s more than doing nothing, but you really aren’t challenged by it. What if you did 11 pushups today, then maybe tomorrow you do 12, 13 the following day, and so on and so forth. If you stick with it, within a month or two, you’ll have made significant gains.
I want to take a moment here to highlight that even though you started at 10, by working through the discomfort zone, you get closer to what used to be the overload zone. Except, now it is in your discomfort zone. That makes sense, right? This is how you keep moving up and developing further.
So how do you apply this to your life? First, I ask you to identify that thing you’ve been wanting to do or achieve. Does the end goal feel like it is in the overload zone? If so, find a version that would fit in the discomfort zone. Maybe you have a goal of starting a YouTube channel. Instead of starting with posting four times a week, you record something short on your phone. Do that until you get used to it, then upload one video to YouTube. Or maybe you’re working seven days a week and want to eventually take a one-month sabbatical every year. Start with taking one day a week off. If that still seems like too much, maybe a half-day a week.
But Kevin, I can’t do that. Hold up. Before you start the doom and gloom thoughts that prevent you from pursuing this goal, think about this - How can I achieve this smaller goal? What systems would I need in place to make this work? How would I change how I use my time? Who could I ask for help to make this a reality? Sit with these questions for a little bit.
If you stick with it, you’ll find some insightful answers and this process will get you to your goal/dream.
Let me know what you’re going to work on. If you need some support, please reach out and I can help you get there.
Kevin Koo is a professional coach who specializes in personal, business, and leadership development while getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Contact him at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com
