Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

As a business and leadership coach I have worked with countless ambitious professionals that have been faced with challenges and opportunities that have made them nervous, faced a crisis of confidence or just down right anxious. And to be honest, I have faced those exact feelings myself.  

In order to grow and develop there is always an element of being uncomfortable and there is an art to being comfortable with the uncomfortable.  This is something I have been grappling with personally, so I would like to share with you what I have learnt that has helped.

Want to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable? Give these tips a go.

Make the choice

That uncomfortable feeling, my friend, is growth.  So you have a choice to make.  You don’t have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, you can even be picky with which situations you choose to take on.  But the truth of the matter is that if you want to grow, develop and/or play a bigger game you are going to have to embrace those butterflies.  But remember, you get to choose.  For me I chose and continue to choose growth.

Get Excited

Did you know that fear and excitement give us the same physiological feelings? It is just whether we choose to see it as fear or excitement.  So again the choice is yours.  It is pretty exciting to be doing new and different things.  So why not think of it as exciting rather than fearful?

Expand Yourself

By putting yourself in uncomfortable situations you are going to see things that you are capable of that maybe you didn’t realise.  Also you might find that you actually quite like doing those things and for a few moments of ‘uncomfortability’ you have untapped a whole new skill set that you love to use.

Think Back

Have a think back to a time where you did something uncomfortable and it benefited you in the long run.  Remember what it felt like in the lead up? And what it felt like after? What do you think of that situation now? Chances are it doesn’t bother you anymore and whilst the lead up was nerve-wracking afterwards you saw huge benefits and would enjoy doing it again. And if you learnt that you really didn’t like doing it, well you’ve gathered more data.  Now you know that, you can adjust the way you grow and develop in the future.  But without trying it you won’t ever know.

Talk it out

There is immense value with talking it out with someone you trust.  When I am facing situations that give me butterflies I will have chat to one of my fellow coaches and even though I know all the same tools and knowledge as them there is something different about talking it through out loud and having the space to listen to yourself and hear what knowledgeable others have to say..

I am going to continue to put myself in uncomfortable situations, because I am getting a bit of a taste for it.  Fear has shifted to excitement and I love pushing myself to see what I am capable of because it turns out we are all capable of quite a lot, it is just whether we choose to show the world and ourselves that.