I’ve gone through my life largely avoiding–or dreading–change. \u00a0In fact, I have actually worked harder to preserve unhappy situations than I might have if I’d faced my fear and allowed myself to go through the discomfort of change in favor of possibly improving my circumstances.<\/p>\n
A pair of gifted teachers I admire put forth ideas on comfort and learning. \u00a0Here is what I took away from the lesson:<\/p>\n
Our comfort zone is a happy place.<\/p>\n
Outside of our comfort zone is where learning takes place.<\/p>\n
I’ve grossly oversimplified the message, but this is the essence of what I think is important today about being uncomfortable. In the act of \u00a0resisting change, my mind is closed to possibility. I’m like that.<\/p>\n
Only when it seems<\/span> I have no choice will I finally get open enough to allow a new idea any space in the mental factory.<\/p>\n Fear plays a big part of this for me. \u00a0And obstinacy. \u00a0And belief. \u00a0These are the bars that contain me in the prison of the status quo. \u00a0When forced to, I might admit that, okay, maybe there could<\/span> be some up side to this or that being different. Grudgingly, I give what is possible a chance because it seems there is no other choice.<\/p>\n Why the big struggle? \u00a0Said situation is unhappy? \u00a0Whatever the reason–or whoever has the idea first–what difference should that make?<\/p>\n Practicing Discomfort<\/strong><\/p>\n As of today, I resolve to embrace discomfort, to treat it like an interesting question. \u00a0Rather than a reduction of my choices, I will see the writing on the wall, but rather than lament my misfortune, I declare that I will use the red flag of fear as a beacon: those moments of discomfort are there to teach.<\/p>\n I will learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The red flag of fear is a beacon: those moments of discomfort are there to teach. I will learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncharted-territory","tag-change","tag-resisting-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmcitystudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}