The Spirit of Discomfort

Have you ever told yourself that things would be so much better if only you didn’t have to catch the bus at 6am in the morning? Wouldn’t life be so much better if only you weren’t single? If only you had more money, you would be able to do so much more. If…. Only….

If only you knew that you don’t really know what would happen? You’ll never know how things would be if you had what you wish you could have. All you know is how things are right now. What you know is that in the circumstances you are now in, with all the limitations you now experience, is that things could be different. Not, better, but different. It could be different and better or different and worse. 

What you are trying to get rid of is the discomfort of it all. It’s not comfortable to get up at 5am from a warm bed. It’s not comfortable to sit on a bus for an hour every morning so that you can beat the traffic and get to work on time. Yes, it’ll be nice to have a warm body next to you in bed and we all could do with a bit more cash. 

Do you want to know what’s the rub? It is that we thrive in uncomfortable situations! We moan about discomfort, yet somewhere deep inside the constant challenge helps keep us sane. If you don’t believe me imagine the following scenario:

Everyday you wake up at..whatever time you feel like… with no agenda. You ask yourself, “mmm what’ll I do today?” You pull out your phone and watch youtube videos for an hour. You decide that you’re hungry and find that the hardest task of the day is deciding what to eat. You finally go to the nearest pizza joint where you eat, what used to be your favourite pizza- but now you’re sick of it. You’re bored so you call up one of your regulars for a bit of casual sex. You get into it with her sought of half heartedly, trying to remember what it felt like when you actually looked forward to it. You get your stash of substances you like, collapse on your bed dirty and wake up at 3am again. You can’t sleep, so you decide to watch a movie. “What am I going to do tomorrow…” you ask yourself. 

Discomfort is your friend. It’s the anchor that grounds you to mother earth. When you don’t have the need to survive, you stop surviving. A fundamental principle is that something must be driving you, other than the need to put gas in the car. What is that? Do you know? Do you want to know?