Discomfort: Seek out discomfort to coax development and growth, but do not confuse discomfort a sign of progress.
One of the most important things you can develop in your life is the ability to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Stepping out of our comfort zone to experience something new, to learn something hard, to meet someone different, or coax adaptation from our bodies… this is what makes people great. Nobody ever achieved greatness because they chose the comfortable path. Motivational stories that move us the most are directly related to the amount of discomfort someone had to endure to reach their destination.
Discomfort and ‘friction’ can also be good for seeking out direction. Where are you having the most trouble? Well maybe that is where you need to focus your attention. Maybe that is where you need to spend all of your tokens at the life arcade.
While discomfort can be a critical component to CrossFit, fitness, and sports progress, it is also one of the most dangerous. The amount of pain you endure, the amount of sweat spilled, the duration, the total reps/calories/miles, or the ‘hardcore-ness’ of the event do not automatically equal results. The problem with many programs, especially CrossFit Programming, (and the mentality of many athletes) is that the amount of suffering and enduring has something to do with progress. This is a dangerous road that leads to much stalled progress and many injuries.
Pain doesn’t equal results. Results equal results. Do not evaluate your training program by how much you suffer, but by how much better you are getting (or how much better others have gotten while doing the same thing). Be willing to exercise some grit and suffer, but make sure that you are suffering for the right reasons and in the most effective way. And not just suffering because you have tricked yourself into thinking it makes you better.
Don’t just “work hard”. Be prepared to work smart AND hard.
Thrive on.
-jj