Lesson on Embracing Discomfort from the Craziest Man Alive
You should get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Majority of your growth occurs as a result of facing discomfort.
Most of the time, what you want and need is on the other side of discomfort.
We all know this. But embracing discomfort is easier said than done.
Recently, I heard the craziest man alive share how he does it.
That's Alex Hannold, the most famous rock climber alive today and possibly ever. He is best known for his "free solo" climbs, meaning climbs without any safety equipment. Some consider his free solo climb of the 3,000-foot (914-meter) high El Capitan to be one of the greatest athletic feats ever performed.
When I call him "the craziest man alive," it’s not meant as a derogatory term. It’s just that, as someone who is afraid of heights, I have to think that there is a certain level of craziness to him besides all the skill that is needed to do the climbs that he is doing.
Even though I know he has put in tens of thousands of hours into mastering his skill, there still has to be something crazy about the person who is willing to face that level of discomfort, right?
Well, it looks like I was wrong. Embracing discomfort doesn’t come from him being crazy. It comes from his sense of adventure.
“How did you become comfortable with being uncomfortable?” He was asked.
"Well, I don’t see it as being uncomfortable. I see it as having an adventure. And I love having adventures."
He goes on to say that this doesn’t apply just to his climbing but to his life in general. Anything that would usually be perceived as discomfort that needs to be faced or an obstacle that needs to be overcome, he sees as an adventure.
But maybe you don’t see yourself as an adventurous person. You don’t like having adventures, so how could you benefit from seeing discomfort as an adventure?
Well, what kind of person do you see yourself as? If you don’t like adventures, what do you like?
I recently met a gamer who was telling me about his body-transformation journey. He has already lost around 20 kg of excess weight. The next stage of his journey was to get a six-pack. He knew how difficult it was going to be. The less body fat you have to lose, the more difficult it becomes to lose it. But, as he said, "even though it’s going to be difficult, it’s just another quest."
For a gamer, discomfort is a quest.
For an engineer, discomfort or an obstacle is a problem to be solved. And they love solving problems.
For me, it is a chapter, or an episode, in the story that I’m trying to create.
What is it for you? I am sure there is something you can find.
However, to me, it seems that all of these things point back to where we started – adventure.
Because human beings are adventurous by nature.
Even if you don’t perceive yourself as an adventurous person, every time you get out of your house, every time you interact with another person, or engage with the world in any way, you are potentially embarking on an adventure.
So I would say that there is really no need for you to change anything about yourself so that you are able to face discomfort, that is, to have an adventure.
What you need to do is just realize that you are already doing it all the time.
Thank you for reading.
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