“Growth is uncomfortable; you have to embrace the discomfort if you want to expand.”
Decades ago I had the chance to work with the sports psychologist Pete Grieder, who also worked with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. Pete had a concept he called “Wimp Junction”, that moment where two roads diverge in front of you and one is the easy way and the other is more difficult.
I call this “The Herculean Choice”, and if you read Ryan Holiday’s book Courage is Calling you can get the whole story laid out. But the TLDR version is: harder is better.
The everyday Wimp Junctions
When you have run around the neighborhood for thirty minutes and the rain starts, do you cut the run short or run in the rain for that extra mile? Going in to the warm dry house is more comfortable, but staying in the rain for that extra mile will not only improve your running but strengthens your will power which impacts multiple other areas of your life. Are 15 minutes of sloshy wet gross and uncomfortable socks worth the growth?
When you are sitting with a potential client and can just let them off the hook and take the easy way out, do you take a deep breath, look them in the eye, and have the difficult discussion? Which is ultimately better for them and you?
At Wimp Junction do you turn into the easy way that doesn’t go anywhere meaningful — or do you take the right route and make your client better and grow yourself?
Get used to being uncomfortable, because that is the path to excellence. That is the way to success. It will expand you and your world, because the hard way is the right way.