Comfort in Discomfort

Essential skill overview: become more comfortable in your discomfort.

Transcript

If you visit any of the Oregon Trail historical sites, you will likely find that they all have one thing in common-- open range? No. Broken wagons? Try again. They go from east to west? Closer, but still wrong. The actual answer is that they all have ruts. Wagon after wagon created grooves and solid rock as travelers followed the trail westward.

Did you know our brains have ruts, too? I mean, not the same as those worn paths in the Earth, but similar for sure. You see, the more that we do something, the more it becomes normal.

Though we may not feel like it, going off the beaten path is actually a good thing. I mean, the Oregon Trail was nice and all, but at some point, travelers had to get off and stop following the path to find something better. They had to be comfortable in their discomfort, comfortable with a little unknown. That hard choice gave them tons of different opportunities.

Dave Ramsey, a financial planning guru, puts it this way. He says you need to "live different now so that you can live different later." Basically, make a choice to spend less now, and you'll have more later.

So my question is, are you choosing to live different now, or are you stuck in your pre-existing and comfortable ruts? If you are, well, then you need to change that. You need to do the uncomfortable and veer off that current path. Jump out of those ruts and go create a new, a better path, even if-- especially if-- they feel uncomfortable.

You see, that uncomfortable choice to live different now will pay off in huge returns in the future. And that truly is an essential and worthwhile skill to learn.

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