Discomfort Zone: How to Master the Universe

Of all the skills I’ve learned in the past 7 years of changing my life, one skill stands out:

Learning to be comfortable with discomfort.

If you learn this skill, you can master pretty much anything. You can beat procrastination, start

exercising, make your diet healthier, learn a new language, make it through challenges and

physically grueling events, explore new things, speak on a stage, let go of all that you know, and

become a minimalist. And that’s just the start.

Unfortunately, most people avoid discomfort. I mean, they really avoid it — at the first sign of

discomfort, they’ll run as fast as possible in the other direction. This is perhaps the biggest

limiting factor for most people, and it’s why you can’t change your habits.

Think about this: many people don’t eat vegetables because they don’t like the taste. We’re not

talking about soul-wrenching pain here, not Guantanamo torture, but a taste that’s just not

something you’re used to. And so they eat what they already like, which is sweets and fried stuff

and meats and cheeses and salty things and lots of processed flour.

The simple act of learning to get used to something that tastes different — not really that hard in

the grand scheme of life — makes people unhealthy, often overweight.

I know, because this was me for so many years. I became fat and sedentary and a smoker and

deeply in debt with lots of clutter and procrastination, because I didn’t like things that were

uncomfortable. And so I created a life that was deeply uncomfortable as a result.

The beautiful thing is: I learned that a little discomfort isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can be

something you enjoy, with a little training. When I learned this, I was able to change everything,

and am still pretty good at changing because of this one skill.

Master your fear of discomfort, and you can master the universe.