I don’t know about you, but I I’m not a fan of being uncomfortable. I love comfort. I like a nice ride, a soft couch, a warm bed, and delicious beverage.
Comfort is something that we all enjoy.
Sometimes to our detriment.
You probably don’t know me, but I started working for XXXchurch full-time about two years ago. I had previously spent 17 years in the insurance business, running my family agency.
Insurance was at times a rough career but it was one that I knew really well. Though I really didn’t enjoy that world even a little bit, I knew my stuff and had great job security.
Yes, it was a family business so there was a lot of drama and no real corporate ladder to climb. Yes, I never woke up excited about going to work. Yes, there were many, many, many days I thought to myself, “Ugh, Is this it?”
But I sucked up all that discontent because I was comfortable. It was not fun, not fulfilling, not where I wanted to end my life… but it was easy and making a change meant taking a risk and that meant being uncomfortable.
Then I met the guys from XXXchurch.
I’ll save you the story but when I came to work for them it wasn’t to help them with their insurance.
No, it was to run their websites, to lead missions teams, and to do whatever else Craig (my boss) thought of—and when you work for a guy who has about 100 new ideas a minute, that’s a lot more work than it sounds.
The first year was good. And at times it was rough.
I never had worked in an atmosphere like this.
I never had to worry about job security.
I never had to answer to anyone.
But suddenly I found myself in a work environment where things changed every day. For a boss who had no problem asking me to do things that I’d never done before. For a ministry that, to this day when people ask what I do, they look at me like I have three heads when I tell them the answer.
It wasn’t about hours anymore. It was about getting the job done … no matter what that job was.
And to be quite honest: about a year ago I felt like I was going to break.
I started asking myself if I had made the right decision leaving my comfortable insurance gig. I started asking my wife the same thing.
And then I came to a major life-changing moment: I asked myself, am I going to whine about being uncomfortable or am I going to take on a new challenge and swing for the fences?
Am I going to worry about failing or am I just going to do my best, no matter what the consequences?
Well, needless to say I went with option two. And I’M SO GLAD I DID! The last year has not just been better … It’s been off-the-charts, and I wake up every day asking myself, “How did I get this lucky?”
Why did this change in perspective make such an improvement in my life? Because I realized three key truths about being uncomfortable:
1. Nothing TRULY GREAT happens without some discomfort.
I don’t care what it is, if you want something amazing, you are going to face some pain, some discomfort, some risk.
It doesn’t matter if it’s losing weight, advancing in your career, going deeper in your marriage, or breaking free from pornography … it’s going to require being uncomfortable, so you need to be willing to go there.
If you never experience discomfort, then chances are you will only experience mediocre satisfaction at best.
2. You can’t break through to the next level if you are afraid of new things.
Like I said, I get asked to do a lot of stuff that I have had no prior experience handling.
New technologies, new challenges, new things that just need to get done.
When I first started here, stuff like this scared me. I couldn’t stand having to learn new things. It was painful! But then I started treating these “challenges” as opportunities.
I stopped dreading the unknown and started embracing it.
I stopped saying, “Why are you asking me?” and started saying, “Yeah, let me take that on and kill it!”
And you know what?
That type of attitude is what gets you ahead in your job.
It gets you ahead in life.
It even gets you ahead in your spiritual walk.
Don’t be afraid of new things, because those new things may be the very reason you find yourself reaching the “next level.”
3. Being okay with comfort is a loser mentality.
There is a saying that good is the enemy of great. Unfortunately for many, they don’t even get to “good” because they are okay with “average” or “could be worse.”
That was me.
I convinced myself that being comfortable was smart. That if I never risked failure then I’d never fail and that meant I was “successful.”
But the truth is: I was just scared.
I settled for less than great (even good) because I was scared of what it required to experience the best. And that is a loser mindset.
I was already failing.
I just hadn’t realized it.
Don’t kid yourself: If something sucks and you keep accepting it because it’s comfortable, you are not being smart. You are being scared or just stupid.
You are not looking to win. You are just praying not to lose.
And that’s no way to live.
I’m sharing this with you for a reason. And no it’s not to gloat or make you guilty about enjoying comfortable things.
I’m sharing this because I meet a lot of people who struggle with addiction and don’t ever experience REAL freedom because they are comfortable with being stuck.
They don’t want to take a chance.
They don’t want to make themselves vulnerable.
They don’t want to fail at something else.
But again, that’s not success.
That’s not freedom.
That’s not winning.
If you are tired of living in fear,
tired of living without hope,
tired of the struggling with an ongoing addiction,
Then try something new. Embrace the discomfort and go for broke.
One place you can start is at MyPilgrimage.com. This is a new program we found that tells a different story about addiction and freedom.
It’s different.
It will challenge you.
It will push on your comfort zones
But that’s okay. Because it may be the very thing you need in order to break through and experience REAL freedom.
Don’t put off being uncomfortable for another day. You are better than that.
Tired of feeling like freedom from pornography or sex addiction is impossible? That it’s an endless “battle?” Check out MyPilgrimage.com and discover that freedom from addiction is possible and something you can really experience.
Start Your Pilgrimage
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