Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. We hear and see this saying all the time when it comes to success and achieving our goals. This is a pretty solid principle, one I agree with. However, if you truly want to continue to reach your full potential make sure you look at it from all angles.
What you allow is what will continue: Your comfort zone is not always necessarily comfortable. A lot of people only see reluctance to make a change as not wanting to get out of your comfort zone, but think about this. How does your body feel? Are you in pain, carrying some extra weight or avoiding things you aren’t good at? Sometimes we subconsciously accept some things about our body, performance or life and see that as comfort…but is this truly comfortable for you? When you think about these situations, would you not be more comfortable if it changed? Avoiding flexibility before or after workouts, running, lifting weights, healthy eating habits or movements you aren’t the best at in the gym is not staying in your comfort zone it is choosing to be uncomfortable…literally.
The relentless pursuit: You have inevitably broken down several mental walls and barriers on your path to be the best version of yourself. Remember, before those walls were kicked down there was as a certain level of comfort where you were at. There was a certain amount of effort you were willing to give and a number of acceptable sacrifices you were willing to make. The more you break through the easier it can become to push to new levels, but it can also become more difficult to recognize when you are allowing yourself to be “comfortable” again. In over 16 years of coaching, this can be one of the toughest situations to communicate because it involves athletes that are working their asses off already. It’s not a lack of effort at all, it is purely mental. Think back to a rough workout when you finally made the decision after several times of coming to this wall that it was time to break through. When you said to yourself, “YES YOU CAN!” Guess what? This has just become your new comfort zone. You now know what it feels like to push to this new level…how your lungs are burning, how your heart is pounding, the sound of your breathing. It’s all just another level of your comfort. This is not code for destroy yourself to the point of puking and passing out every session. It is just a mental check-in. You are putting in work, but are you pushing yourself just to that point again and not realizing there is another level to be had? Breaking down big barriers takes time, a consistent effort. If you stay the course and challenge yourself to win the mental battle in your head more times than not, you will find you are capable of so much more than you think.