Ep #193: Two Types of Discomfort

Hi! Today I’m talking about discomfort.

I don’t think any of us really want to feel any kind of discomfort.

We would probably all prefer to just live a life full of comfort and feel good all of the time.

I know I would.

But unfortunately, that’s not how real life is.

Real life has the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the comfortable and the uncomfortable.

No matter how hard you try, or how much thought work you do, you’re still going to feel bad, negative, and uncomfortable sometimes.

So first things first, let’s accept that this is how life is for all humans. All of us. Even celebrities and billionaires and people you see on social media who seem like they have the most amazing lives.

They get upset about things, they feel stressed and frustrated, they feel urges for things they don’t want to feel urges for, they feel mad, they feel scared.

Negative emotions and discomfort are going to happen for everyone.

So expect it to happen.

Now, there’s so many reasons why we might feel uncomfortable and so many kinds of discomfort but today in this episode, I want to focus on two types of discomfort.

The kind that changes you and the kind that keeps you the same.

There’s the kind of discomfort that you go through when you’re stepping outside of your comfort zone, doing new things you haven’t done before, taking chances and risks, breaking and creating habits, changing your mindset, doing things that scare you a little, or a lot, and feeling your feelings instead of avoiding them.

That there, is discomfort that will change you.

If you want to change, and you want to achieve big goals, and you want to stop binge eating, you will need to go through this kind of discomfort. It’s inevitable.

Now, I’m not saying it’s going to be uncomfortable the whole time you’re changing. There will be plenty of times when you’re feeling comfortable, when you’re doing things you’re good at, things are clicking, you’re doing small things that are doable for you, and that’s so great. Amazing change will happen in that space too, in your comfort zone.

But, discomfort will also be part of it because you’re not going to change if you don’t do new and different things that you’re not used to doing.

If you want to be different and change, you have to do different things and change you, and that will be uncomfortable.

You’re working against what’s habitual and practiced for you and that’s uncomfortable. You’re doing things you’ve never done before and that’s uncomfortable.

But, it’s discomfort that will change you.

It’s like going through the discomfort of starting a business or applying, interviewing, and training for a new job. Or going through the discomfort of working out.

It may not be awesome when you’re going through it but, when your business is built, when you’re comfortable at your job and killing it, and when you’re physically stronger and have more endurance, you feel so good and it was all so worth it.

The discomfort that changes you in ways you want to change is so worth it when you become who you want to be.

Now, you may not want to experience that type of discomfort, the type that changes you.

And if you’re okay with being exactly as you are, then that’s great. Be how you are and love it. You don’t have to change if you don’t want to.

But, if you do want to change and aren’t willing to go through that discomfort I just talked about, then you’re going to go through a different discomfort.

The discomfort of being in a place that you don’t want to be.

It doesn’t feel good to want to change without changing.

It doesn’t feel good when you keep thinking, feeling, and doing the same things over and over and the possibility to change is available to you but you’re not doing it.

So instead, you feel the discomfort you feel after having binged, meaning the extreme fullness, the low energy, the tiredness, the fogginess, the food hangover, the discomfort of continuing to experience urges to binge, the discomfort of negative self-talk, the discomfort of low self-esteem and low self-confidence, the discomfort of hating your body, or the discomfort of having an unfulfilling life.

And you’ll stay the same when you just let those discomforts happen. These discomforts don’t create change like the ones I was talking about before.

And there isn’t anything rewarding that I can think of that you’d get from going through these ones.

So if you’re choosing the discomfort of staying the same, why might you be doing that?

For a lot of you, it’s because there’s also comfort in that.

It’s familiar and it’s easy and there’s no risk of failing at trying to stop bingeing yet again.

But there’s also comfort in changing, as I mentioned before.

Neither is going to be 100% comfortable or 100% uncomfortable.

You’re going to find comfort in changing when you see the small changes that are happening and when you see yourself progressing and getting better at things, and when you do something new and you do it well and you celebrate the crap out of yourself.

That’s going to feel awesome.

Going through the discomfort of changing is extremely rewarding while we can’t say the same about going through the discomfort of staying the same when you don’t want to stay the same.

So you get to choose your discomfort. Unless of course, you choose to accept where you are and love it. That’s also an option.

But when it comes to binge eating, most of you don’t want to choose that option.

You do want to change, otherwise you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast.

So you’ll either get the discomfort of changing or of staying the same.

There’s no way around it so choose your discomfort.

Don’t just let the one you don’t want happen.

Be intentional about choosing the one you do want and about going through it, all the way..

Alright, that’s all for today, I’ll talk to you next time.

Bye bye.