One Step Further: Discomfort & Us

By: Julius Mims of St.Paul, MN

The desire to be comfortable is natural. When you wake up on a cold morning, your instinct is to get back under the blankets. Whenever a song you don’t want to listen to queues up, you skip it. And whenever a challenge presents itself, you are naturally inclined to avoid it, if it would offer you no obvious benefit to face it. 

Nobody can condemn comfort. Everyone wants to be comfortable; after all, what is happiness if not contention? Being satisfied with what you have, what you are capable of, and who you are is gratitude and self-love. 

Perspective Matters

You take a test, and get a B+. While it’s not the grade you wanted, it is a good grade nonetheless. You’re satisfied with the result, despite the fact you wanted an A. You leave that test as is, and move on with your coursework. 

You take a test, and get a B+. It’s not the grade you wanted, but it is a good grade. You’re glad you did as good as you did; you could’ve gotten worse. Still, you believe you can do better. You talk to your professor, and go over what you missed. They won’t allow you to retest, but they do acknowledge your efforts to get a deeper understanding of the material, and how much you care about maintaining your high academic standing. They offer you another assignment, another opportunity to demonstrate your learning. After you complete and return it, they bump the test grade up to an A-. 

In either scenario, you didn’t receive that A. For some people (such as myself), that first B+ is devastating. You often believe in your capabilities so thoroughly, and upon receiving the B+ (which isn’t a bad grade to begin with), you are deeply disappointed by your own inherent incompetence. 

But the difference between the situations is the final result. If you take that test, and be defeated by your perceived poor performance, that is all there is to it. Your best attempt, with the skills you had, and the knowledge you possessed. But if you take that test score, and believe you can do better, and at least try to achieve greater, you might just do that. In many cases, there is nothing you can do; some professors give final grades and leave it at that. But the point isn’t to always get a better score, but the very attempt to do so was worth it in and of itself. 

There are many times where we find ourselves faced with an obstacle, new opportunity, or an issue from the past we never resolved that we cannot see ourselves overcoming, taking advantage of, or resolving. We don’t bother attempting something we do not believe we can achieve; that’s a waste of effort and energy. We maintain a steady quality of life by remaining comfortable, by doing what we know works. By settling for what we believe is the best we can do. 

But it is in that struggle that we find the ways we improve ourselves. Struggle is not inherently good, nor bad; it is merely a process. Struggle is defined as “striving to attain or achieve something in the face of difficulty or resistance.” This does not denote whether or not the struggle is noble, as sometimes we struggle to achieve things that will only serve to our detriment. What it does mean is that in order to achieve a goal, you are actively fighting adversity. And in order to fight adversity, what must you do? Grow. Adapt. Improve. Just by trying, you automatically became better. Even if you fail, you gained something. Not the goal you hoped to achieve, or the item you wanted to obtain, or the status you wanted to attain, but the growth and self-improvement from the process instead. Being a better, stronger person is reward enough. 

That is how massively successful people achieve that success. They try new things, take on new challenges. Discover new passions. And through trial and error, experimentation, and exploration, they find their calling, while simultaneously building the toolset to succeed and prosper once they find it. 

The only place you can learn new things is by traveling to places you’ve never been. If you stay in the same place, whether physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally, that is what we call the “comfort zone.” Outside of the “comfort zone” lies things you would’ve never learned had you not seen it for yourself. Step out of that zone, and learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. 

“Strength and Growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” 

- Napoleon Hill 

We are conditioned from birth to believe that your life goal is to attain something, or achieve something; you are taught from a young age that you need a spouse, a good, high-paying job, a college degree, and a ton of other things to be “successful.” However, I implore you to challenge those norms and change your definition of success. Success is happiness, and you can give yourself happiness by being content and happy in your daily life. Life is not about reaching a destination, but it is about the journey and experiences. 

Writer & Exigence

Hi! I’m Julius Mims, a first-year student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I am from St. Paul, Minnesota, and am studying Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management. I hope to go into Environmental Law. In my free time, I enjoy playing sports, writing poetry, reading, traveling, making social media content, and hanging out with and making new friends. I also have a YouTube channel where I talk about life and all its complexities, as well as a podcast that I’m working on starting. I advocate for the message of self-love and social justice because I’ve experienced what it means to be deprived of it. My goal is to be an environmental lawyer who focuses on advocating for systemic environmental issues and challenging social norms that influence us to be so careless while tending to our planet. 

I wrote this piece because I have spent the majority of my life “in the comfort zone.” This kept me unsatisfied with my quality of life. As I grew older and explored new ambitions, I found that the things you gain from being outside of

your comfort zone is worth all the discomfort, struggle, and energy. The skills I learned in my ventures helped me be more prepared and ready for the next era of my life. I am perpetually improving, and happy with myself for the daily progress I make toward being a better person. I live happier, healthier, and wiser by using this mindset.

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