Facing life transitions is a time of dealing with discomfort. It’s a time to set new goals, find new direction, and search for new ways to make your life work. Are you at that place where you’re feeling uncomfortable about setting and reaching goals?

In a Wired Article, Dean Karnazes shared his journey with discomfort.

Dean Karnazes was a tequila party zealot before he became a marathon superhero. On this 30th birthday in August 1992, he was a slobbering drunk barely able to hold down his vomit before he got home. When he saw the sneakers on the floor, he thought it would be a good idea to go running. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up his sneakers and went out to run. When he found himself in Daly City, 15 miles later, he sobered up. Looking down at his scanty clothing, he felt ridiculous but also relished a sense of exhilaration. He decided to keep running till he logged 30 miles. The light bulb went on while he was running: he has a vast, untapped reservoir within him.

Fourteen years later, Karnazes has challenged every limitation of marathon running, many of these stories have been written up in his book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of An All-Night Runner.

• He runs 30 miles each day in 4 hours.
• He has run 350 miles without sleep.
• A few months ago, he ran 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days in each of the 50 states.
• To make time to run, he sleeps 4 hours a day.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were launching our then-19-year old son. I asked him, “What do you want in life?” He said, “I just want to be comfortable.”

Comfort has become a highly prized core value of Western culture and we embrace this value to our own detriment. In another interview with the Outside magazine, Dean Karnazes said, “Western culture has things a little backwards right now… We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable…What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.”

In response to my son’s comment about “comfort,” I said, “When you seek comfort, you’ll find discomfort; when you seek ease, you’ll end up with dis-ease.” At the time, he didn’t understand what I meant. Now, after he has had to struggle to earn a living for 2 years, he gets a taste of what Dean Karnazes meant by the magic of the struggle.

Discomfort is a powerhouse for us who navigate transitions because:

1. Discomfort is a powerful motivator, while comfort is a powerful demotivator. Muscles that don’t get exercised atrophy; discomfort provides the environment that requires us to exercise our muscles: physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual.

2. Discomfort is often a sign of personal growth. When you’re stepping up from incompetence to competence, there will be discomfort. Just like they say, “No pain, no gain.”

3. Discomfort serves as a catalyst for growth. Without discomfort, it’s easy to slide back into what’s routine and familiar. Discomfort pushes us forward.

4. Discomfort builds the human spirit. It reveals the untapped potential within us and opens our eyes to the capabilities that have never been developed.

What are your feelings about discomfort? What experiences do you have about dealing with discomfort? How did you harness its power?
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