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Discomfort has its advantages.

September 4, 2013

Whew! I finally made my way back to my blog! If it really were the thought that counted, I'd have been making posts like crazy! I'm happy to finally be back on the ball (literally!) and putting another post out there. I promise to show up here a lot more often.

I was speaking to a friend recently and she commented thusly: I love my car! I love my job! I love my lifestyle! Now those aren't things one hears very often. And even if they are, they are not usually spoken by the same person. My friend had recently started a new job and that required her to get a car (which she had been wanting to do anyway). But just a few short weeks earlier, it was a very different situation.

She was working at a relatively new job that was O.K. but not what she had hoped it would be. Since she had only been there for 6 months or so, she felt a little guilty about looking for a new job. So she decided to wait it out for a while and hoped things would improve.

Then she got a call from someone who told her about a dream job that had just opened up that she would be perfect for. Not having anything to lose, she went for the interview.

Wouldn't you know it, a few days after the interview, her current boss, just making small talk, asked "Are you happy here?" "You're not out looking for something new?" Gulp. Having no idea if she was going to get the dream job, she said "No, I'm not looking for something new." What else can one say when things are so uncertain?

My friend ended up getting the dream job offer. Now here comes the uncomfortable part: if she takes the job, she is going to have to tell her existing boss that she's leaving. That flies directly in the face of what she had told him only a week before. What would you do? How often do we choose to avoid an uncomfortable conversation/situation because we don't want to deal with it?

Well, my friend chose to have the conversation and live through any discomfort she might experience. And you know what? In exchange for her willingness to step bolding toward what she wanted; she loves her car!, she loves her job! and she loves her lifestyle!

Nothing is easy all the time and endeavoring to live a life that is always comfortable will rob us of the opportunities to take risks and realize great rewards.

What potentially uncomfortable conversation/situation are you avoiding? What are you missing out on because of your reluctance?