Comfort is Americas chief export.
What does America produce better than any other country in the world? My answer would be comfort. America produces so much of it that it’s actually killing some of us. Comfort keeps us from achieving our career goals. It keeps us from achieving our health goals. And it keeps us from achieving our financial goals.
Comfort has become so pervasive that it’s now a leading contributor to poor mental health, emotional stagnation, and early death from preventable causes. Comfort keeps us dumb. It’s easier to turn on Netflix than read a book that will grow our mind and our perspective. It keeps us unhealthy. Almost everything in the grocery store is not healthy to consume. It keeps us out of shape because our beds are just so comfortable and it’s hard to get up to exercise. And, it keeps us in debt because using a credit card is easier than focusing on what we spend and how we spend it.
Every day and in every moment we’re consciously or unconsciously answering the question:
Do I value my goal more than I value my comfort?
Or maybe this question: Do I value my dream more than my comfort?
What I eat determines whether or not I value a healthy life. It also determined to what extent I value a healthy life.
Where and on what I spend money determines whether or not I value building wealth and saving for my sons education.
Where I spend my time determines whether or not I value my relationships. It also determines how much I value my spiritual and mental growth.
What is your comfort keeping you from?
What I’ve noticed is that the only thing keeping my friends from achieving their goals is their personal willingness to step outside of their comfort.
That’s where all your success is as well. You can almost see it through the haze of Netflix and donuts and dinners out and car payments. Your success is just beyond that, waiting for you to break through.
How can I be so sure you ask? Because I’m on the other side of it. My wife and I have worked hard to be able to work for ourselves from home. We’ve sacrifices to pay off out mortgage. We habitually guide out spending. We decide what kind of food and how much of it we’ll eat.
Over time, we’ve reaped the benefits of that maturity. We have so much respect and empathy for our future selves that it becomes easy for us to make wise choices. Crossing your goals off your list gives you a much better shot at loving your dreams. You CAN live yours. How?
You must acclimate yourself to the discomfort of maturity.
It’s been said that the discipline to delay gratification is the hallmark of maturity. People who choose to do the uncomfortable thing today for a payoff tomorrow continue to enhance not only their own lives, but the lives of everyone they meet.
You can be the kind of person that lifts the people around you. The first and toughest person you have to start with is you. Today, decide which comforts you’re willing to temporarily set aside as you trek toward your goals.
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