Things suck. Sucky things will happen.
If you want a completely safe and comfortable life, that’s never going to happen.
Is that really living? People I know who live comfortable lives, actually don’t have all the comfort available to them.
They make it their choice, to get comfortable with the discomfort.
“Embrace the Suck”, as they say. Because things will suck. Your quality of life will be up to how you deal with them.
What’s 3 ways that can help you get comfortable with the uncomfortable?
Experience (in small doses)
It’s like getting a vaccine. I expose myself to small amounts, to learn how to protect and defend myself.
This literally means, putting yourself in small, short, manageable, yet challenging situations so you can get a hand on getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Little by little, then greater and greater, as time goes on.
It’s like training myself. The first gym sessions were torturous, but as time goes on, you begin to get comfortable little by little in the environment.
In the same way that I was able to adapt to taking cold showers. Turn down the temperature little by little, as time went on.
Think about just getting started. 30 seconds, and let the momentum do the rest.
I was surprised at a person’s ability to adapt to anything.
Including, getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Don’t shun away discomforting situations. Instead, see the opportunity for you to train yourself.
Our problems and discomforts don’t get easier. We become better at handling and accepting them.
Why?
One way to get better at getting embracing the suck, is to answer the question: Why?
Right in the very moment you are experiencing the discomfort.
Any answer will do, but of course, real and solid answers are better.
We people have an extraordinary ability to get things done, and to push ourselves beyond our limits. On such factor that contributes to this, is our ability to get energy and resources from what is important in our lives, and from the reasons that we give ourselves.
It allows me to focus on the result, and the positive impact that getting through the sucky situation that I am in right now, can give me.
I was in the middle of the province, and it was raining hard. No jacket, and I was soaking wet, in the middle of the jungle, having to walk another 8 kilometers to get to town. I just wanted to give up stop and return.
But I kept asking: Why? Why am I doing this? What makes this important? Why would I want to do this?
And as long as the answers kept coming, my feet kept on walking.
Make it fun
Whenever you’re in a difficult situation, or in an annoying situation that you can’t get out of, you can try to make it into a game.
Find what’s fun, and expound on it.
When I was in boring meetings that I had to stay active and pull through, I would play some minigame, like counting certain keywords, or challenging myself to make a relationship diagram of the attendees of the meeting.
Find what would be interesting, and focus on that in the moment of difficulty.
When I walked those 8 kilometers, I focused on what was so funny in the moment. I made jokes, and talked and talked to my companions. When things fell quiet, I would just focus on the next 100 meters, then the next, and then the next.
I was celebrating and congratulating myself for those small milestones. Those little habits carried me all the way into town.
What else made it fun? Looking forward to a reward that I was going to give myself. I was already imagining myself enjoying it, and kept telling myself to keep on walking, because there’s fun and happiness at the end of this journey.
It worked. It all worked.
Embrace the suck
Because situations happen, and there is no choice but to get through them, if you want to get the results that you want.
Again, as we go through life, the situations we face won’t get easier.
We get better.
How do you “embrace the suck” in your life? Let me know in the comments below!
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