Comfort is the enemy of progress because nothing worth doing comes in easy in life. I’ve personally felt the negative effects of comfort at the sacrifice and expense of my future. When you seek comfort you will feel good in the present but regret giving up so quickly in the future.
Picture this. It’s your junior year of college, a year where companies are salivating over who to hire the best to bring over to their team. You scored a very low salary offer of $16/hr but you already went through 30+ interviews to get that sole offer. They give you 3 weeks to decide.
Then suddenly, a dream company by the name of Citi comes knocking. For a dream position. It’s already in the late stages of the recruiting cycle so you know the competition is very slim. Even though you know you have 3 weeks to decide, which is ample time for the company to make a decision, you throw in the towel.
You politely decline to interview with Citi. Not because you want to be grateful to the first internship offer you got. But because you’re just pooped out and you don’t want to go through with recruiting again. You want to seek comfort. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. It literally happened to me.
Comfort is the enemy of progress. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened had I even just agreed to take the meeting and interview. The sad thing is, I’ll never know. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten the offer anyway. However, I will never know and I will never find out.
Comfort is the enemy of progress. You don’t want to not give it your best shot. Don’t be me who has regrets and wonders “what if”.
What Does Comfort is the Enemy of Progress Mean?
Comfort is the enemy of progress means that if you are seeking to be in a position of comfort, you will not progress as quickly or at all compared to if you are in a position of discomfort. Many times we are not already at the place we want to end up at.
Therefore, we need to always seek out adventures and challenges in order to get to where we want to go. Where we know we belong to be at. Progress doesn’t happen by doing the same thing over and over again. Progress happens when we do something different with our lives. Something we haven’t done before.
Otherwise, when we get stuck in routine, we’re just doing things we don’t want to do over and over again until we die. That doesn’t sound like a life well lived to me. There are many scenarios where we choose the easier path and call it a day. Taking the easy way out isn’t a bad thing at all.
However, when the easy way out turns out to be a worse outcome than taking the hard way out is when it becomes bad. Comfort is the enemy of progress if a better result could have been realized. I remember giving up too soon, which always led me to wonder, “what if I had just gone through with it?”.
No matter how bad things seem now, it’s going to look even worse later on. You’re going to regret not taking even a day to think things through before making the leap. If one good night’s sleep is the difference between your ideal self and your current self, then that’s a no-brainer.
Learn from my mistakes because I sure wish I made different decisions and choices.
Why Comfort is the Enemy of Progress
One reason why comfort is the enemy of progress is because you’re not SMASHING that social share button and posting to your favorite social media! You don’t want comfort and just stand by while doing nothing, you can do something completely different and switch it up. Your friends could benefit from it.
So with that said, let’s get into the reasons why comfort is a bad strategy to go.
1) Nothing Worth Doing in Life Comes Easy
While there are unlimited opportunities out there in the world, there are limited opportunities when there’s a given timeframe. Therefore, when we are competing for limited resources in limited time, we need to keep fighting for everything we know we deserve to get. You have to speak up and let others know what you want.
One boss gave me advice to say what you want. He’s had many opportunities he could’ve given to others but didn’t give it to the person who really wanted it because they didn’t speak up and say what they wanted. It’s uncomfortable to say what you want because you might come across as demanding.
However, comfort is the enemy of progress. The worst case scenario will most likely not come, anyway. Your boss is not going to hate you. As long as you’re assertive and not pushy, then there’s nothing wrong with saying what you want and going after it. Go after the things you want, otherwise someone else will get it.
2) We Progress Through Challenges
When’s the last time you felt that you achieved progress because you took the comfortable route? That you didn’t want to ask that stranger out because you were too afraid? The worst that’ll happen is a no. However, let them tell you the no instead of you telling yourself the no. When we feel emotionally charged is when there’s growth.
You don’t get better by competing against players who are at lower levels than you. You get better by competing against players who are mountain times better than you. There are numerous tricks and strategies that the better people employ that you haven’t even considered or thought of using.
Challenging yourself is the only way to ensure that you can solve new problems that come your way. If you solve the same problem over and over again, how do you expect to react if new curveballs are thrown your way? Comfort is the enemy of progress. Challenges and failures help you figure out what you could’ve done differently.
3) The Definition of Insanity
Albert Einstein said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results“. Comfort is the enemy of progress because we love doing the same thing over and over again. We love routines and schedules that gives structure to our lives.
Wake up at 7am, shower, brush teeth, eat, then go to work, for example. However, while that’s all well and all, it’s not going to progress your life in terms of development. Sure, if you save and invest that paycheck, it’ll grow to a good number over a long period of time. However, your skillset will not be drastically different year over year.
If you want to move forward and upwards in terms of development, it’s about doing something different. I recently got a new job offer that I have never done in my entire life. I have no skillset in it. However, I accepted it because the challenge will be meaningful for me to grow my skillset and increase my knowledge base.
4) Our Ideal Future Lives Are Different from Today’s
Think about your ideal life. If you don’t already have it, your ideal life includes you making different choices than today’s to get there. Then that logically means that comfort is what’s keeping you back. Comfort is keeping you from progress. Doing the same things over and over again means you’re doing the same things.
I ideally want to be a millionaire by the time that I’m 30. However, I can’t get there if I keep making the same choices that I’m making. While I am progressing towards that goal, I know I won’t get there at the current rate. Therefore, sometime between now and then, I know I’m going to make different choices.
Nothing’s been finalized but I know that it has to happen in order for me to realize the goal. Comfort is logically holding us back from progress for this exact reason. What are the different choices that you have to make in order to get there and what’s holding you back from making those choices today?
5) Comfort is for the Status Quo
We enjoy comfort because we got accustomed to the circumstances surrounding us. We become lethargic to our circumstances and we learn to adapt. When I first came to the United States when I was 9 years old, I was scared as anyone could be. I didn’t even speak the language yet I was moving there.
I didn’t want to leave my comfortable life in South Korea. However, it happened regardless of how I felt about the situation. That challenge turned out to be the best decision my family could’ve made for me. Without changing the status quo, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Comfort is the enemy of progress because the status quo attracts comfort like no other. I can’t imagine what my life would’ve looked like if I stayed in South Korea. The opportunities in the country is good but it’s very limited when compared to the United States. The status quo is not as good as it makes you feel it is.
6) Others are Working Hard to Take Your Spot
There are millions and billions of people working 25 hours a day just to take your spot right now. There are people in undeveloped countries working as hard as they could just so they can catch a glimpse of what you have in the developed world.
We take things for granted until we lose it. The advantages we enjoy of living in the developed world is immeasurable. And that’s out of 200+ possible countries we could’ve been born in. There are many people who work even harder than us yet still have less. They are waiting until we let our guards down.
When you let comfort take over your decision making progress, you are inviting others to take what’s yours. Staying still is the new left behind. There are times when it’s appropriate to take the gas off the pedal. However, they should be the exception, not the rule.
Comfort is the Enemy of Progress, Don’t get Sucked Into It
Learn from my mistakes. When I took the comfortable route and gave up without considering if it was the optimal choice is when I got burned. Comfort is the enemy of progress. There’s nothing wrong with taking that one extra interview invitation, one extra date, one extra “hello” that changes the course of your life forever.
It starts with you. No matter how much others want to help or meet you, you have to want to go for it as well. Meet them at least halfway. It’s much easier to stay at home instead of going to the gym and lifting weights. Once you finally go through with a workout is when you become grateful that you went in the first place.
It takes work to get to where we want to be. We don’t need to conserve and save as much of our energy as possible anymore. In the old days, that was advantageous. These days, it’s a disadvantage. When we’re not at the top, we HAVE to exert energy and effort in order to get to the top.
Have you ever noticed the differences in campaign strategy of Obama? When Obama first campaigned, he was energetic, full of life and color at his speech. It was very lively and you could see the emotions he put behind speeches. However, after he became president, he had no need to be as lively or prove anything to others.
He already had made it. There’s no need for introductions when he’s already the president of the United States of America. Before you can get to the place of comfort and calmness, you have to put in the work to get there. Comfort is the enemy of progress for when you are building your life.
Why Comfort is the Enemy of Progress List:
- Nothing worth doing in life comes easy
- We progress through challenges
- The definition of insanity
- Our ideal future lives are different from today’s
- Comfort is for the status quo
- Others are working hard to take your spot
