LIving in the COVID-19 World ... and Beyond: #3 - Let's Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Let’s Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

I hear some people say: “When will things get back to normal?”  They are eager for everything to be like they were before COVID-19.

I can understand this sentiment.   Living in the COVID-19 world is scary and full of uncertainty.  And people are losing their jobs, getting sick and dying, disproportionately people of color here in the United States.   The current situation is both unfamiliar and uncomfortable for most people.   Everyone’s life has been disrupted in some way.   People yearn for the familiar, the comfortable, and the known.

I think we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.   What is hard for each of us about facing discomfort and uncertainty?   

I remember when I had been at GE for 20 years and was in a role that I had aspired to and which was in many ways my dream job responsible for leadership and executive development for the company.   I knew all the leaders at GE, felt had I had grown up with them through our careers, I was widely-respected and GE was visited and studied for its best practices in leadership and executive development.  In essence, I was at a pinnacle in my career.   And I was 48 years old and still had a lot of career ahead of me.   When a recruiter for IBM contacted me, I explored the new opportunity and eventually chose to go to a new company with a different culture and different approach to leadership development.  My friends at GE were astounded.   When they asked me how I could possibly consider leaving, my response was that I had become uncomfortable being so comfortable and that I wanted to embrace the discomfort of something new and challenging.  And as much as I was sad to leave GE and my friends there, I recognized that too much comfort can stunt someone’s learning and growth.

In this case, I chose to seek out and embrace the uncomfortable.   But with the COVID-19 crisis, it has been thrust upon us without our anticipation or advanced agreement to its conditions.

I think it is important to remember that we have had big changes that were mightily uncomfortable forced on us in the past.   We have all had the experience of being in our mother’s womb and then, quite suddenly, being out in the world with little to no context for understanding this new situation.   And almost all of us have had the experience of leaving home and going to school for the first time.   These were uncomfortable, unfamiliar, different, and new places for us to go.   And I would suggest that these were times of the greatest learning for us as we grew and adapted to our new environments.

So yes, we are uncomfortable with this world of COVID-19.  There is uncertainty, newness and change.   And we have demonstrated before that we can adapt to new situations, that we can learn and grow in the midst of great changes, whether self-initiated or brought upon us by external forces.   Let’s embrace the uncomfortable and not act like it is something to be avoided and retreated from.   Let’s get comfortable being uncomfortable, and use this as an opportunity to grow in ourselves and in how we collectively face discomfort.