The Other Side of Discomfort
First of all, my apologies. 2025 has been stretching me thin, but I am back. A little off schedule, but I will post another blog on Monday January 20, 2025 to return to my regular cadence. Thank you for your patience and continued support. Please follow along on Instagram (@arcandbloomco) and Linkedin ( Arc & Bloom Professional Services) for more personal growth insights.
Interestingly enough, New York doesn’t have everything. I moved here in April 2024 after being in Denver for the last 2 years. In Denver, the outdoors were a huge part of my life and everywhere. There is so much diversity of activities in which to participate. Mountainbiking and snowboarding were my primary modus operandi. I miss the adrenaline rush, the flow, and the focus that came to me through those activities. Since moving to New York, I’ve picked up running, because it’s challenging and very accessible. I was a sprinter when I was young, but that is very different from running longer distances. I started at a slow pace and short distances. The goal was to run 3 miles every week and then add miles each week. I got up to running about 17 miles a week. Which is a lot for me. On one of my last long runs was 8 miles and I strained my hip flexor. Over the last few weeks I’ve been rehabbing hoping to get my miles back up.
I go to the gym everyday. Instead of running for cardio, I’ve been using the stair-stepper, elliptical, and stationary bike to help me take some strain off of my hip flexor. Today, I decided to do a walk and running circuit on the treadmill. I walked for 4-minutes and then I ran for 2 minutes. During the first running portion, I felt some discomfort in my hip flexor which should be expected as I hadn’t ran in a while. I almost quit, but I thought to myself, discomfort isn’t pain and in this instance recovery is on the other side of this discomfort. I was on the treadmill for 42 minutes and by the end my hip flexor felt good and I’m so glad I didn’t stop.
Growth, success, and even recovery are all on the other side of discomfort. Discomfort is where all the good shit happens. You have a choice in moments of discomfort. You can quit and reengage with your comfort zone or you fully engage with your discomfort. Engaging with your discomfort will reveal so much about yourself. It will put you in the same room as that little voice in your head that yells at you to quit and will introduce you to the voice that whispers, “keep going”. I’ve learned the more you listen to the one that whispers, “keep going”, the louder it gets. The one that yells, “quit”, never actually goes away or even quiets. But, your resilience in the midst of discomfort gets stronger. You become more willing to endure and push past the limits that used to hold you back. Now, navigating your discomfort is not something you can turn on and off. It is practice and it’s not that it becomes easier, it’s that your expectations of yourself change. Your belief in yourself changes. It begins in those small moments and over time you’ll be able to navigate your discomfort in bigger moments. The next time you feel some discomfort, engage with it and see what’s on the other side.
What’s on the other side of discomfort for you?
Remember, The Journey is the Destination.