17 - The Curse of Comfort

B-RAD with Brad Toews

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

We live in a click culture. We value comfort and convenience. We idolize the instant success stories, we look for shortcuts.

The problem with the click culture mindset, with taking the shortcut, choosing fast and easy, is that not only does it produce lower quality results but it robs us of the personal gains we achieve by working through challenges.

Challenges, difficulties, and setbacks are the catalyst to growth. They reveal something inside us that only discomfort and adversity are able to unearth.

"The shortcut that’s sure to work, every time: Take the long way." - Seth Godin

In the movie the Lord of the Rings when Frodo and Sam are leaving The Shire on their epic journey, they reach a point where Sam says, "If I take one more step it will be the farthest away from home I've ever been".

The growth from discomfort happens in the adventurous and difficult journey when you move beyond "home" territory, past your personal limits and into the unknown. Into a realm of new growth, new understandings, and new ideas.

In John Maxwell's book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, he uses the analogy of a rubber band being stretched to illustrate the potential in adversity.

It's the pulling, the stretching, the tension on the rubber band that activates the power within it.

The potential and possibility is only realized when we're stretched. When we're moved beyond the comfort of the Shire.

In a later chapter of the book Maxwell shares a quote from Robert J. Kriegel and Louis Patler.

"We don't have a clue as to what people's limits are...The potential that exists within us is limitless and largely untapped...when you think of limits, you create them."

We can move from a comfort zone into a capacity zone. Our capacity zone is beyond the brink of our personal limits (and limiting beliefs), it’s past the Shire.

We see challenge, discomfort, and adversity as the curse and often do everything we can to avoid difficulties. But the curse is the not the adversity, the curse is the comfort.

Our unknown potential and creative spirit dies when we try to cushion ourselves in comfort. But what's born out of adversity is hope, growth, and expansion.

Join me in this podcast as I discuss lottery tickets and quick wins, consider shortcuts vs. epic journeys, and challenge you to see the curse in comfort and the advantage to adversity.

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