Whether you’re trying to get faster in the pool, on the bike or on the run,
Break the 10 hour barrier in an Ironman,
Cross the finish line of your first Ironman,
Break the 5 hour mark in a half Ironman,
Podium in your age group,
Finish your first ever triathlon,
or win your first ever triathlon…
CHANGE IS HARD.
If it’s a different result than you have right now, most likely it’s hard to achieve. Here’s the secret: change is hard on purpose. Just like a good amount of our individual training sessions are hard to make us physically stronger, there is a fair amount of work needed to make us mentally stronger.
Most often we don’t change or reach our potential as athletes because we don’t want to do hard things or be uncomfortable. Why be uncomfortable when we can just slide back to the familiar?
Because if we keep doing what we’ve always done, we will keep repeating the same results. Same results means no change. No change means we’re not tapping into our potential.
Embracing discomfort, showing yourself what you’re capable of and stepping into your potential is the greatest thrill in the world!
The small price to pay for your goals and realizing your potential is the price of discomfort. You know the early AM wake up calls are hard, you know the schedule juggling is hard, you know the swim intervals sometimes seem impossible — but you show up for it all anyway. The discomfort of growth is worth the result.
We all know this intellectually. So why is it so hard to step into and welcome the discomfort of growth? We can look to our biology for the answer. There is a part of our brain that is designed to keep us safe; that part of our brain loves what is familiar - familiar equals comfortable. In the moment, what is familiar and comfortable is most compelling (i.e. a warm bed vs a cold pool).
What often happens is we succumb to the power of that primitive brain, choosing comfort over discomfort. We hit snooze and skip the early AM swim, cut our run short because we just weren't feeling it, or give up early on a hard bike interval, then beat ourselves up with regret or shame when we don’t perform well. It can become a rinse and repeat cycle.
As humans, we have the privilege of experiencing 50% positive and 50% negative emotion in this life. There is no good without the bad. My challenge to you is this: choose the 50% negative that includes the discomfort of growth and leave the regret behind. Because your biggest, hairiest, most audacious goals are on the other side of discomfort.
