Developmental discomfort is the ‘awkward zone’ part of significant change, of significant personal and professional growth. Just as a weightlifter needs to ‘feel the burn’ to make real progress, so true mental and emotional growth requires you to stretch beyond familiar territory, to get out of your safe space and established routines.
This includes the willingness to go beyond areas you have mastered and endure the discomfort of being a novice again or confronting parts of yourself that you would rather not acknowledge or hear truths about yourself that may not be as laudatory as you would prefer… that others may not see you as you see yourself.
Growth starts at the end of your comfort zone. As Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) said, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” and I suspect the greater the reluctance/fear, the greater the treasure.
Folks, I’m as fond of my comfort zone as anyone and there are many areas of my life where I have routines and rituals that I cherish… BUT I always, always carve out areas in my life where I’m pushing the zone; gaining a new skill… to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift, the best I can be I must be, ‘bit by bit, better every day; helping others along the way.’
Closing Quotes:
“What got you here, won’t get you there.” – Marshall Goldsmith, b. 1949
“Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.” – Susan David, Emotional Agility
“People grow most when they continuously do things they cannot do — in the presence of others who believe they can.” – Lisa Lahey
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832