Comfort Is a Lie: Why It’s Time to Get Uncomfortable on Purpose
I live in a city which is beautiful. It attracts tourist from all over the world and is often full to over bursting. It is a Roman city so the roads are not equipped to deal with the amount of traffic that we have. I hate being stuck in traffic. This is something I am working on, I know that moving all the time is not necessarily serving me. The more I listen to my body, the more I am starting to understand what it needs. This has served me in helping a me understand how bodies feel at a micro level to help you, my Queens, to unlock your bodies and move better with less or no pain.
I digress, back to the traffic. It takes a tiny incident here for all of the roads to back up and plunge the city into gridlock. Facebook groups start popping off with ‘the ring road is blocked from x to y, abort your travel missions and assume a brace position on your sofa’s immediately’. As I now have a keen eye for the traffic gremlins, I know when there is trouble brewing and I have 2 choices.
1) Sit in traffic
I can sit in the traffic and practice my breathing, do my pelvic floor work, sing along to my favourite EMO pop tune of the moment (Chinchilla ‘Little Girl Gone’ thank you for asking), all the while getting angrier and feeling myself fizzing with frustration at every second the cars in front do not move.
OR
2) Try a different route
I can try and find a different route. Go out of my way. Might it take longer? Yes but really, I will never know. Do I do the exact same things when I am in the car on my new route. Yes absolutely.
BUT maybe I notice someone making a turn down a street that I assumed was a dead end, and follow them only to find that it is a short cut I hadn’t known was available to me. Maybe, as I take that road, I notice how nice the houses are or I see a cute dog (I am always on the lookout) that makes me smile. Am I still late in the end? More than likely. Do I arrive feeling the same ways as I would have if I had sat in traffic? Nope. I am not fizzing, I feel triumphant. I feel like I beat the problem and learned something new.
What does this have to do with life, training and the gym?
EVERYTHING.
You have choice. Choose your hard. Do I sit on the sofa and next time I go out for a night out, have to sit down after 10 minutes of dancing because I am knackered or do I go to the gym, have a laugh with my friends or enjoy my own company rocking out to my Badass playlist, and the next time I am out, dance the night away not noticing the time.
Or (dim the lights)
Do you scroll endlessly, mindlessly nibble one more biscuit, and one day find you can’t carry your own shopping bags?
Or do you build strength now—so when you’re 10 years older, you still sling your entire weekly shop in both hands like the powerhouse you are? (Yes, I am that woman.)
Bring the lights back up.
What I mean is, life is full of choices. Life is not easy. Honestly wouldn’t want it to be, you would be so bored. That said, you can choose the game of life you want to play.
But you do get to choose the game you’re playing.
Is your life game Tetris—trying to stack everything neatly with minimal effort until it all collapses?
Or is it Mario Kart—spinning, soaring, laughing, cuddling Baby Yoshi, and occasionally falling down a big hole… that you’ve learned the cheat code to climb back out of?
You get to choose. Just make sure the game you choose is worth playing.