How I’m Learning to Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

As a natural introvert, I’m no stranger to feeling uncomfortable. Whether it’s dealing with conflict in the workplace or making a phone call to book an appointment, the feeling of anxiety can be overwhelming. As a result, I often avoid situations where I’m at risk of feeling this way. Clearly, this is incredibly limiting in life, so I’ve decided that it’s time to take radical action. I’m going to be challenging myself to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

It sounds like a relatively simple concept and I acknowledge that in reality, when you’re in an uncomfortable situation, 9 times out of 10 the worst outcome possible is being told “no”. In which case, you’re no worse off than you are right now. For me though, the hardest part of the experience is overcoming the anxiety associated with the initial action — this is what I’d like to fix.

According to Stoicism, we should discard our anxieties, freeing ourselves up to tackle any challenge head on with the heart of a lion. But how can we train ourselves to do this? The Stoics took straight forward action, simply putting themselves in uncomfortable situations until they no longer felt uncomfortable. This is all well and good but in reality, a lot of the situations they trained themselves in aren’t realistic in the modern world, or so I thought.

When researching and reading about the topic, I stumbled across a blog by Ben Aldridge, author of “How to be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable: 43 Weird and Wonderful Ways to Build a Strong and Resilient Mindset” (by the way, this has now been added to my reading list). In the blog, Ben discussed how he created a list of challenges for himself, designed around his fears and anxieties, that would put him in situations where he’s forced to face them head-on, just like the Stoics. The challenges start off small, gradually growing as his comfort level increases, ensuring that he is always living in a state of discomfort at least some of the time.

Logically, this makes sense. The brain is the same as any other muscle in the body. We go to the gym to train our arms, legs and torso, getting stronger as the weeks and months pass by. So why not create challenges to push the limits of our mental state? All this to say, the more we push ourselves, the stronger and more resilient we become. In fact, I embraced this very concept in my mission to complete 75 hard, which is designed to put you outside of your comfort zone. Since then though, I’ve come to the realisation that whilst the daily task list pushes you to your limits, it isn’t tailored to you as an individual. So whilst the concept is sound and the results are significant, the one area I didn’t see progress was in overcoming my personal anxieties.

Therefore, I will be following in Ben’s footsteps. I will be creating a list of challenges for 2022, with each one designed to target a specific anxiety or fear of mine. I will also be modifying my daily routine, incorporating meditation to focus my mind each day and journalling to release my thoughts and anxieties from my brain onto paper.

Finally, being uncomfortable is a feeling that a lot of people are familiar with, so I invite you to challenge yourself and join me on this journey of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am a firm believer that collectively, likeminded individuals can push each other beyond their limits, so if you have any thoughts or ideas on this subject, or simply want to share your own journey with me, you can reach out on Twitter or email.