This makes me very uncomfortable

Have you ever heard the words, "I just want to be comfortable"? Have you ever thought what the definition of comfort actually is and what it means once you get it?

I fell off a ladder a few years ago. In agonizing pain, I sat in my favorite lazyboy chair, with my feet up, juiced on medication to relieve the pain. After a few hours of TV, coupled with an inability to move without extreme discomfort, I realized that comfort was a moving target. Comfort would only last a few hours before I would have to move my legs or my arms or even my neck.

I know people who say they just want to be comfortable. I won't criticize them for that line of thinking.

Here's what I know about comfort. I had a really good job one time. I loved the company I was working for. I really enjoyed the relationships with my colleagues and the owners were great people. My last day there, I cried. I was taught that crying was not allowed, so those emotions came from really deep inside my soul. I left for another job that would make me very uncomfortable.

Guess what happened next.

I developed a skill in evaluating businesses. I became an expert in the business of restaurants. I spent a lot of time with restaurant franchisees, understanding the benefits and pitfalls of restaurant ownership. It was so uncomfortable in the beginning, I had considered asking for my old job back. I stuck it out. I started public speaking to the franchise network, in which my first speech was at the National Conference in front of not only the entire network, but also all of top management in the organization. I was scared s%*tless.

Getting out of your comfort zone always yields growth. It will suck in the beginning. Over time, it gets easier and better.

Let me give you a simple example that I read this morning that demonstrates this fact. Take a piece of paper and write your name on it. Then underneath your signature, write your name again, but this time with the opposite hand. Feel the awkwardness. Notice the length of time that it takes you versus the first time. Look at the penmanship. If you were to lose your dominant hand, you would learn to write with the other hand - guaranteed. If you tied your dominant hand behind your back everyday, you would learn to write better and better with the weaker one.

Comfort is an illusion that's fleeting. Financially speaking as long as we pay our bills, have more money coming in than going out, we create an illusion of comfort. Yet, if you had to stop working for health reasons, where would your comfort be and for how long? What if federal monetary policies changed to the point that your income level couldn't keep up with inflation? What if the economic uncertainty of Greece or Cyprus happened in Canada?

Most people do not have enough savings to carry them for more than 2 months without inflationary pressures. I know people close to retirement age that don't have any savings. Where is their comfort? Most will answer that they expect the government to take care of them.

I've always looked for opportunities to escape my comfort zone. Each time, I dislike being uncomfortable in the beginning, but it always gets easier.

Let's get uncomfortable together and achieve bigger dreams than we ever thought possible.

Have a great weekend.

Rick

PS. The company that I loved working for went bankrupt three years after I left. The employees went to work one day and were notified they were all being terminated at the end of that day. I don't have to tell you how many received severance packages.