Practicing Discomfort Intentionally

Hi my fellow perfectionist!

I have a message for your today about practicing discomfort intentionally.

When you decide to change, to level up, to become the next version of you, it requires you to do things differently. 

Personal growth requires you to be uncomfortable. 

For this reason we often avoid doing unfamiliar or difficult things, to avoid the discomfort. 

Lately, I’ve been practicing discomfort. 

It may sound crazy, but hear me out. 

If what stops us is the mental thought of the discomfort then it makes sense to practice overcoming discomfort right?

Recently, I asked a good friend of mine if I could join her at Bikram Yoga. 

Bikram, or hot yoga, was something I told myself I would NEVER do. Why? Well because…

1. I hate being sweaty

2. When I do go to yoga it’s to relax. 

The idea of doing yoga in a humid room of 103 degrees is not my idea of relaxing. 

I thought this would be a good place to start building up my tolerance of uncomfortable things. 

Obviously, the fact that I’m writing you this email means I lived. I did not need the defibrillator from the front desk, the lady next to me did not need to use her CPR skills (yes I did whisper to her I’m new do you know CPR when we were stretching before class). I even managed to do all the poses and stay the whole class without passing out.

Now, did I look like the rookie of the class, most likely yes.

My form, my skill were not means perfect.  

But I survived. I did something hard I never thought I would do. I put myself in the vulnerable position of looking like I was the worse in the class (far from perfect right?). And… I lived. 

I can even say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. 

Now, what does this have to do with perfectionism?

Well, often times as perfectionists we don’t even try things that we know we won’t be good at, or perfect at. 

Secondly, it’s human nature to avoid discomfort as a survival mechanism your brain tells you not to do things for that reason. 

The only way we get better at taking risks and growing is by taking action and being willing to feel the discomfort and knowing that it won’t kill us. (Ok maybe a slight chance in Bikram ;))

I remember a similar challenge I made myself do to get better with lecturing.  With time it became easier. I’m not saying I enjoy it but I no longer feel like I can’t breath when lecturing in front of a large group of physicians. (I had a lot of perfectionist thoughts flare up during that process but story for another day). 

This week, plan to practice being uncomfortable at something. I’d love to hear about your experience. I promise you will be stronger on the other side. 

Love from your life coach,

Alissa