Sometimes the worse thing that can happen is to get stuck in being too Comfortable. Join me (JB Glossinger) as we discuss the issue of comfort and change and why you should be Uncomfortable sometimes.
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Episode 2877 Danger of Comfort
[00:00:00] Good morning and welcome to Morning Coach today! I am so glad you’re with us. As you know, my name is J.B. Glossinger and this is your personal evolution system, the place to get your day started right. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I’m so glad you’re with me today. As we rock ‘n roll and have some fun just putting great energy out there. That’s what we do every day here at Morning Coach. It is about the energy. Three hundred and sixty five days of the year. Just join us. You know, get with us and we’ll continue put that energy out there. Listen, if you can get here three times a week, that’s great. If you can get here four times a week, that’s even better. Five times a week, you’re rocking it. Because it’s all about changing that conditioning that we have and really getting a different thought process going. That’s what we’re doing here together. So, excited about today because I got a good one.
[00:01:05] You know, we’ve been talking about getting away from this idea of self-sabotage or getting away from self-sabotage and getting us into a place of action and activity. And we’ve had some fun, talking about some stories, talking about dealing with uncertainty. And today is another one of those days, and it’s something that I need to deal with day in and day out, and that is dealing with the dangers of comfort. Between 2009 and 2015, 2016, I got really comfortable because I would come here every day to the Coachcast, the podcast, serve as much as I could, and then go have some fun. And I got really comfortable with that. And it wasn’t until it started this year that I hired my coach, and we took a look at everything and said “gosh, you know it’s time to get uncomfortable again.”
[00:01:45] So I started getting into coaching, started putting some new things together, restructuring, and I got to tell, you I’m feeling great. And I think really what happened over 2015, 2016, is I started to get really comfortable. We’ve got to be real careful with comfortable, being too comfortable, because we kind of stopped growing. If we think of the system- and I’ve been in the system. I’ve been on the board of directors. I’ve helped run companies- and within the framework of the system, one of the things that we learn is- and what I mean by the system is when you’re working for someone in a corporate environment, right? This is not bad. I’m just explaining how it works- is we look and say “OK, who do we want to hire?” And we understand in the system that our highest amount of money that we spend is normally payroll. Like, that’s your biggest expense. So, the whole idea behind establishing the payroll is to make sure we pay people enough, but that the expense doesn’t go too high. So, it’s a real challenge for management within the framework of the system to determine “how are we going to pay people?” and “how much can we pay them?” because, if you think about it from a very logical aspect, if we pay them too much they’ll leave. We pay them too much and make great financial freedom, then they will leave and then we’ve got to find somebody else to do it. So, the system itself is not negative. It’s just how it works.
[00:03:05] So, the idea is that within the system we want you to be comfortable, but just not too comfortable. We want to keep you comfortable because the more comfortable you are, the more likely you’re going to stay. So, we’ve got to pay you enough to keep you comfortable, but not pay you too much that you decide to leave. And I’m just talking about the system itself. So, there’s this aspect of us becoming really comfortable with our pay grade or our lifestyle, and we just don’t move forward. We just kind of stay in that same spot and continue to progress. Now is this wrong? No, it’s not wrong at all. If you’re happy, is it OK to settle with a great job or a great career? Of course it is. If you are at peace you have joy, and you have happiness. If you are not happy and you want more, then you have to realize that you’ve got to make some changes because you’re in a system that really is just looking to make you comfortable. Right?
[00:04:07] And so we’ve got to understand that as we move forward. Because when we start trying to grow and develop and do cool things, we need to understand that being uncomfortable is going to be part of it. I know this because, look, I’ve had a membership site for years, and it’s one of those things that on the outside looks easy. It’s like, “wow, if I could just get all these people together and pay me, I’d have this residual income. It’d be a great income set. It’d allow me to be comfortable.” Right? And that’s kind of what we’re always trying to find that comfort, that security. The truth is that if you’re going to build something on your own, you’re really never going to be comfortable. It just is what it is. It’s the way it is. You’re always going to have things you’re going to have to deal with, and you’re going to be uncomfortable. And that’s the tradeoff. Being an entrepreneur versus somebody in the system is that you know in the system you do have that comfort ability. You have that paycheck coming in every week. As an entrepreneur, you don’t have that. You don’t know what’s coming in, and you’ve got to adjust and shift and make changes. Right? So, is it OK to be in the system? Of course it is. Of course it is. I have people that I coach that are in the system from all different levels which I think is great, and they have great lives. And I have people that are outside of the system that are building things, trying to get things going, and need that help to stay focused and motivated on what they need to do to keep going on.
[00:05:28] But you’ve got to kind of choose where you’re at, and if you need to go after something more, it’s OK to get a little uncomfortable. It’s OK to do something that’s outside the box. It’s totally cool. So you’ve got to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I think I mentioned this week that one of the things I used to do back in the day when we used to have the offices and I sold perfume and things weren’t going really good is I would sleep on the floor. Now this is, of course, before I got married, and this is when I was younger and it didn’t affect me this much. But I would do that because I wanted to be a little uncomfortable. And I knew that if I was uncomfortable, it would force me to kind of get out there and do something different to kind of move forward in things. And so being comfortable can be dangerous if it’s taking away from your peace, joy, and happiness. So what I want you to do today then is to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Just think about something that makes you uncomfortable. There’s got to be something that you don’t like to do, and I’d like you to do it. I mean, that’s kind of your homework today. Do something that’s a little bit uncomfortable.
[00:06:37] I was thinking about this this morning as I was putting my list together of things I want to discuss. And I was thinking about Fletcher. Fletcher and Amy Ellingsen have been long time members of Morning Coach. They do some really great work with diabetes. In fact, they’re going to do some blogging and some interviewing here to come in and help us in that area. Fletcher is a great speaker and coach and Amy is an amazing doctor, and they’re going to be helping us a little bit in that area to help people deal with that. And one of the days that we were talking- this is a few months ago- Fletcher was telling me about a time when they were down in Mexico and he really did something that was uncomfortable. He went into the office and- they knew they were having a little event there- and he said, “hey, I could speak at your event,” and it was uncomfortable for him. In his mind he was thinking about all the things that could go wrong, but he went in there and did it. He faced his uncomfortableness and went in there and spoke to them, and they hired him as a speaker. They wanted him to come in and speak that next day since he happened to be in Mexico, and that’s led to a lot of great things for them. So, him facing his uncomfortableness and doing something that made him uncomfortable actually brought him a lot of benefits.
[00:07:42] So, I want you to start doing some things once in awhile that make you uncomfortable. You can write with your other hand or try to use your mouse with the other hand. That’s almost impossible. I mean, it’s so hard. I try to do it once in a while as a mindfulness exercise, and it’s just challenging trying to write with your other hand. Those things are just so challenging, right? But you’re uncomfortable, and you’ve got to get used to being uncomfortable. The more you can get used to being uncomfortable, the more that you can handle challenges. And remember, challenges make you stronger. They do, and so you take them on. I coach a lot of endurance athletes. I’ve got some great clients who do some awesome things as far as biking and running and triathlons. And why do people do that? Because they’re taking on the challenge. They’re pushing themselves a little bit further. It’s like me. Why do I go with work with Sir Mike Lee Kineret? I just signed up for this 30 hour, no food, no sleep- just crazy- training because it challenges me. It makes me stronger. And that’s what I want you to think about. What can you do to challenge you? What fears can you face? What can you do that’s going to make you a little bit uncomfortable? Really face that fear and do it so it doesn’t become a fear anymore and it’s seen as a challenge. And one of the things that I keep saying that’s important is to journal the process of learning. So as you go through all these sayings and you’re listening to this, then just go do something you’re uncomfortable about and journal it. Journal it. Write down why that made you uncomfortable. OK? Write it down. And that’s going to help you. Now if you need some motivation to do this, to become a little more uncomfortable, if you are comfortable in your current state and things are kind of moving in the direction you want them to, then I want you to lead by example.
[00:09:23] And why would we want to lead by example? Because by leading by example, it motivates us to do more. I watch TV every once in a while. I record it. I put it on DirecTV. As you know, I’m a big sports freak. I watch a lot of sports live- that’s about all I watch live- and then I watch some TV shows that I like. One of them’s Bar Rescue which is kind of funny. I like Jon Taffer; I think he’s a good guy. We’ve actually connected on Twitter which is pretty cool, and we’re going to meet up. And it’s just cool because I think John actually coaches more, even though it’s a reality show. Do you know how much those are-, how much is real and how much isn’t real? Right? But it is pretty cool that I’m catching up with him, and that’s a cool thing. And every once in a while I watch his show called Naked and Afraid which is just some cheesy show where they put people out in the jungle naked. And when they get in, they’re out in this jungle and they’re naked and they’re trying to survive. And I don’t know why people do it, but they’re not really alone because they have a couple of people out there in the jungle or wherever they’re at with them filming them constantly. But they are kind of alone. And one of the things, why I bring that up is, I hear a lot of people, especially a lot of the moms that are out there, say “I can’t give up because I need to lead by example for my daughter. I can’t give up because I need to show my daughter. She needs to see me as someone that does things. And I need, my daughter needs to see me succeed.” Or, “my son needs to see me succeed.” And so a lot of times, what we can do is we can, by showing that we can handle adversity, by showing that we can handle some uncomfortableness, we can show other people that we can get through it.
[00:11:25] And that, sometimes, is a motivator and that’s why I’m telling you because I’m trying to help you get motivated to do this. And it’s tough. I got to tell you, we live in a society now where we really have a lot of people who have a lot of time on their hands, that we’ve created so much comfort in the world that things are getting easier and easier and easier. I remember when the remote control came for the TV when I was younger and people were like “wow, people don’t need to get up and change the channel anymore.” Well, now we have Alexa and Siri where we don’t even have to do anything anymore. Where we can just get ourselves, verbalize what we want and actually have that keep coming. So we’ve got to just keep progressing step by step in our lives in order to get out of this comfortableness or get out of this comfort and start to face some things that are going to allow us to be uncomfortable and to continue to grow. My only concern is that, as they say about a tree, a tree is either growing or it’s dying. And when we become a little too comfortable, we stop growing. And that’s what we’ve got to be cautious of, and that’s kind of what I’ve gone through which was a real issue for me.
[00:12:38] So again, what I want you to do is get yourself into a position of understanding this idea of uncomfortableness. Get into change. Allow yourself to accept it. Allow yourself to face fears. Allow yourself to be uncomfortable once in a while, and recognize that that’s life. And once you can understand that and you can be in it, it doesn’t affect you as much. And when it doesn’t affect you as much, then you can do more things that are going to make you step outside of your box and going to make you grow. Remember, the key thing is this: it’s not what you acquire, it’s who you become. And how do you become more? You challenge yourself. You go out there and learn new things. You study, and you step out in fear and uncomfortableness. That’s what’s going to get you there. That’s what’s going to make it happen. Right now I’m trying to get better with my Spanish. It’s coming along great, but it’s uncomfortable. It’s still uncomfortable, but I’m getting there. And I’m trying to get comfortable with the uncomfortableness so that I can continue to practice which will allow me to get better. And that’s the key thing here. We gotta step out. OK? So let’s step out today.
[00:13:46] I love you. I do. Let’s go have some good energy. Tomorrow, I’ve got this idea about money and understanding it with motivation. And the question is “Is money a motivator?” That’s really the question. Is it going to keep you going? Well, we’re going to answer that tomorrow. Today, you need to step out and do something that’s going to make you uncomfortable, so that you can feel it and you know that you’re doing something that is putting you out there a little bit. OK? So get out there, have a great day, put some great energy out there, and I will be back with more right here on Morning Coach to keep you going. So go have an amazing day, and I’ll get you started again tomorrow morning right here on MorningCoach.com.
