Make Yourself Uncomfortable

How comfortable are you right now?

Are you lounging on the couch?  Lying in bed?  Sitting at your desk? I hope you aren’t driving while you read this.  

Ask yourself, when was the last time you were uncomfortable.  I don’t mean when was the last time that tag on your t-shirt bothered you.  I mean when were you last truly uncomfortable?  Try to think of a situation where you did something that pushed you out of your comfort zone either physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  

If you can’t remember, you’ve got some work to do brother.  

The goal of life is not to seek comfort.  

But you wouldn’t know that from how society acts today.   Everything being sold is to make you comfortable, make you feel better, or provide relief.  Want to buy something? It’ll be delivered overnight. Want to eat something? The doorbell will ring in half an hour.  Want to feel different? Here’s a pill.  

Not all these things are bad.  But when everything we do is purely to make life easier, we lose any determination to make progress.

Most men go through life wishing, dreaming, and hoping, but never get out of the damn chair long enough to make any of those things a reality!

When the goal is comfort, apathy is the result.

If you want to make progress, you cannot remain comfortable. 

In order to grow, you must step out of your comfort zone, take a leap of faith, and go toe to toe with what’s standing in your way.  

In order to lose weight, you have to start moving and sweating. You have to be physically uncomfortable.

If you want to grow spiritually, you have to trust God in faith; which usually makes us uncomfortable.

If you want to defeat an addiction, you’re going to have to deal with some uncomfortable issues in your life.

Ask any person who is successful in any area of their lives, they won’t tell you, “Yeah I just sat there and one day it happened.”  NO!  They’ll tell you about all the things they had to overcome in order to be successful.  They will tell you about the blood, the sweat, and the tears it took to get there.  

They had to push themselves through the discomfort to achieve the goals they sought after. 

One of the greatest Presidents and definitely the most badass President, Theodore Roosevelt,  expounded the virtues of seeking discomfort in a speech in 1899:

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

Triumph, victory, and fulfillment, comes not from seeking ease, but from overcoming adversity.  

If you want to have a breakthrough in your life, you have to BREAK-THROUGH. 

It takes breaking through an obstacle, overcoming a barrier to get to where you want to be.  You must have the courage to be uncomfortable; to face obstacles; to exorcise demons; to overcome setbacks.

So here is my challenge to you, my brothers…

Make Yourself Uncomfortable.

Push yourself past the pain.  Face whatever you’ve been unwilling to face.  Make the changes you’ve been scared to make.  

I never would have overcome my sexual addiction without being uncomfortable. 

I was perfectly comfortable where I was.  It was easy.  I knew what to expect.  But I was miserable.  I was going nowhere and was heading towards destruction.

It took some very uncomfortable moments in order to find freedom.  There were some extremely uncomfortable conversations with myself, my mentors, and especially my wife.  But that’s what it took to break through.  

So whatever it may be: porn addiction, sex addiction, career, weight loss, etc., make yourself uncomfortable. 

Progress is made through making yourself uncomfortable.

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