Is “Get Uncomfortable” Just Too Sloppy to be Safe Advice?

Thoughts I’m Not Fully Finished With Yet

I’ve seen a few posts this week about how you need to do something uncomfortable.

Once a week, you need to do something uncomfortable.

Once a week, you need to make a decision that’s uncomfortable.

That’s how you know you’re growing.

This isn’t a new thing. It’s been around for years, hasn’t it?

I felt like I really needed to get something down about this because I’ve done this. I’ve fallen for it. Nobody’s trying to con you into anything. People don’t necessarily have a vested interest in what you’re doing. But unless you’re really in tune with your feelings, and you understand what uncomfortable actually means for you, there’s a chance it can go horribly wrong.

Because uncomfortable is such a big umbrella term.

What does it actually mean?

Are you feeling uncomfortable because the step you’re about to take is exciting? Because it’s growth? Because it’s expansion? Because it’s a new path, bigger and better than anything you’ve done before and so yes, it feels uncomfortable?

Or are you uncomfortable because it’s just wrong?

Because your body is going, I’m not sure about this?

I’ve made business decisions - things that really affected my business and my life - because I mistook feeling uncomfortable for it being bigger and brighter and growth, when actually it was my body going, there’s something off here. This isn’t quite right.

If you put this into another context, say going out with someone, or meeting someone for the first time, it becomes clearer.

You might be sat in a bar with them, feeling uncomfortable. But are you uncomfortable because this is lovely? Are you out of your comfort zone because this is new and exciting?

Or are you uncomfortable because there’s something not quite right?

And if the person you’re with is quite good at this - if they’re charming, if they know how to turn it on then it can become really confusing. You can talk yourself out of what your intuition is saying. You can stay because you think you’re being out of your comfort zone in a good, exciting way.

When actually, your intuition is going, ‘there’s something not quite right here.’

So this really is an unfinished thought. It’s just something I felt I needed to get down. Probably more for me than for anyone else.

What is uncomfortable for you?

What does that actually mean?

Because using discomfort as a compass for your life, your business, or whatever, just feels too broad.

Wishy-washy.

Unfinished.

And potentially treacherous.