I am uncomfortable right now.
I will be moving 700 miles away from home in just a few months, my classes are becoming increasingly challenging, and I am pressured to form a new friend group once I start college.
Nothing feels the same as it was, and knowing everything will keep changing makes any feeling of comfort fleeting and unfulfilling.
I’m trying to live with the fact that it is good—exceedingly beneficial, even—to be challenged and pushed past my normal comforts. Discomfort is irritating and daunting, and right now, it makes me wish for simpler days when I didn’t always have to think ahead or plan out my life for the next years.
People in my life—my teachers, parents, and anyone who holds a degree of authority and influence—have preached about how imperative it is to step outside of your comfort zone. Do things that are challenging and scary. Set the highest goals with a reasonable timeline because those are the types of goals that will actually be obtained.
These same people have also stated, “Don’t do anything you aren’t comfortable with.” “Be careful.” It is understandable in a few contexts, but when I hear them argue this in front of me, it is usually in the safe, small contents of a classroom or another relatively controlled environment. They don’t want to receive backlash for motivating an individual to participate in something that they are apprehensive about even though being a little uncomfortable is the best way to knock down each level of the comfort zone to achieve growth.
I recently heard Dr. Nido Qubein speak at one of High Point University’s events, and during his welcoming presentation, he touched on a fact that made me reconsider and think about my discomfort. As an immigrant, he explained that upon arriving in America from the Middle East, he was thrown directly into a situation that was alarming and thoroughly uncomfortable.
He had to leave his mother back home in Lebanon, and he was in a new country where he hardly spoke the language. Making a living was hard, and he spent days sorting through English vocabulary on flashcards to start the long journey to learning the language.
Now, Dr. Qubein is the president of High Point University, serves on the corporate board for Truist Bank, and is decorated in public speaking. Although these are only a few of the accomplishments that he has achieved, his story serves to show what happens when an individual is placed in an uncomfortable situation and works hard to obtain what they have always dreamed of doing.
Dr. Qubein’s story is a special story of success, and individuals in his shoes certainly face hardships and adversities daily. But constricting growth in a controlled environment—like the classroom, for example—only inhibits an individual’s ability to fully thrive in the real world.
A lot of the well-known ways to expand someone’s comfort zone is by simply learning new things, meeting new people, and trying new experiences. For me, being uncomfortable and stepping outside of what I am routinely used to is imperative for breaking the cycle of doing the same things over and over again with no growth in sight.
When I force myself to talk to new people I haven’t met before, this strengthens my ability to hold a conversation and increases my threshold to do the next uncomfortable thing. Growth doesn’t have to be executed in an all-consuming manner like in Dr. Qubein’s story, but it is the simple, small steps that eventually lead to great, extraordinary success.
