Monday, July 28, 2014

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

 

It’s a funny irony about life.  If you want to be good at a lot of things, you need to be willing to be bad at a lot of things.  If you have ever tried to learn something new, you know what I mean.  The first time you try to skateboard, or speak a new language, or write, you will have challenges.  You will fall down and flub up and fail.  When we are young, we really don’t mind so much.  That’s just a part of the process.  But as we get older, we get uncomfortable being uncomfortable. 

That’s a shame because that’s how we learn.

Dr. Carol Dwek talks about the two different mindsets about failure in her book “Mindset.”  Dr. Dwek explains that Fixed mindset people believe their abilities are set.  So if they have already been deemed “smart” for example, they don’t want to challenge themselves because they might prove that wrong.  Growth mindset people on the other hand understand that life is about constantly learning and changing.  Your abilities (in anything in life) are not set.  You can improve.  

But you have to be willing to get “uncomfortable.”  You have to be willing to fail. 

But by allowing yourself to “be uncomfortable” (if just for a while), you open yourself up to a life of great experiences, learning and wonder.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.  You will be better for it.

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