Discomfort leads to strength

Starting a new type of training is never easy. It's uncomfortable, and the progress is much slower at first, but the result is having a much more tolerant and balanced body that can help us thrive.

I recently read a post from Seth Godin and appreciated the paragraph he wrote below. It speaks to the nature of how things are a by-product of the culture and environment that surrounds us and can change with time.

I'm not sure there's an intrinsic reason that watching a particular movie is more satisfying than solving an endemic problem. We've simply evolved our culture to be focused on the business of amusement instead of the journey toward better. – Seth Godin

Culture comes in different shapes and sizes. We have our family and the cultural history of our family. We have the cultures in our community, city, and our country. All these circles of culture come with influences, expectations, and ways of thinking and behaving. Whether we're aware of them or not, they have an impact on us.

Many of our ways of thinking and behaving come from all these different circles and the respective experiences we were exposed to and integrated growing up.

It's as if the only gym we ever frequented when we were younger had machines that only targeted our upper-body; there's a very high chance that our lower-body would be under-developed today. It's not that we were unable to develop our lower-body. Still, the culture, the environment and the experiences we were exposed to targeted our upper-body only, making building those muscles much more accessible.

We often mistake the muscles we've built growing up as the only muscles we can build. We see them as who we are; we take them on and make them our identity, but the truth is, we have the power to change.

When we push ourselves hard enough and go out of our comfortable ways, we can find a gym that will offer us some training for our lower-body as well.

Starting a new type of training is never easy. It's uncomfortable, and the progress is much slower at first, but the result is having a much more tolerant and balanced body that can help us thrive in many types of environments.

Going back to Seth's comment, perhaps we need to shift our culture toward one that strives towards becoming better, stronger, and doesn't shy away from discomfort. It is our choice to make; no one else can make it for us.

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.