Learning From The Comfort Crisis

You have to have this variance of emotion. And it's mind training. Like, the person who can deal with all of the other things that are not comfortable or fun is the person who's really going to have just a happy life that feels easier, even though there's no easier things happening than the next person. And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.

And we're back sweatier than ever. I wish you guys could see us right now. We are drenched in sweat, just ran what, 4.5 miles?

Yeah, 4.5 uphills around cornfields in the heat, which is fantastic because you and I have been listening to the comfort crisis and trying to live it out. Meaning just really, I'm trying to get really uncomfortable with too much comfort in my life. And that book is helping me so much. Just reframe. When we are on runs, you know, I took a break from running for a while and let me tell you, coming back to it has been like, honestly, mentally the hardest thing for me. Like, physically, I can tell, like, my body's like, a little tired in the beginning and I drop in and get used to on mile two and three. But mentally, I'm like, I'm fighting with all the things I used to fight with when I started running. Like, my mind feels like a toddler throwing a frustrated temper tantrum. And I know that that is when I've gotten too comfortable with different things in my life. And I can always kind of reset it back with, like, running or physical things. So I've just observed my workouts have gotten a little bit easier. I haven't been running as much, and my brain doesn't want to do the hard things. So I'm stopping this in its tracks and doing my best to really dive into the uncomfortable thing. And I noticed that that translates into my entire life. Not sometimes.

Every time.

Actually, it's translated into more happiness for me. Let me. You guys, I know we've already done podcasts on this before, but this is what's real to us in a moment right now. I probably reference that book every single day. I'm not exaggerating. At least once a day. Every single day. I reference that book. Now, the other day when I was flying to Fast Foundations to Denver, my connecting flights got canceled after three hours of delays. So, like, oh, delayed another hour. And I sit there. Oh, delayed another hour. You sit there, oh, delayed another hour. And then like, nevermind, it's canceled after you sit in there for three hours. And I immediately started to throw an internal fit There's a name for these. They're called Chris Fits. And usually they used to be out loud and. And now at least they're internal. But the point is, I was able to correct it right away. It's like, dude, just solve the problem. Like, all you have is an expectation hangover right now that this was gonna be an easy day of travel and you were gonna get there on time, but it doesn't mean you're not gonna get there, right? So rolled up my sleeves, borrowed a car from mom, drove two hours to an airport that was not the airport I was originally flying out of, quickly got a hotel, spent the night, and flew out early next morning and made it on time to speak and teach from my part at Fast Foundations. And you know what's really cool is one, it took something that I used to throw a fit around and I would have, like, ruined my own day. Listen, that sentence. I would have literally ruined my own day. Everything would have been bad attitude, poor me. And instead I was like, all right, how do I make this fun? Like, this doesn't have to be a bad thing. And I threw on a book when I was driving the couple hours to go get the second flight. And it's the book on Bob Igers, the recent CEO of Disney. That book is so freaking good. And it's delivered you and me a couple of gifts right when we've been talking about business things. I'm like, oh, my God, it's no coincidence. I had just listened to X, Y and Z. It's like I had a blast by myself. I do love alone time by myself. I do love driving. I got to have a night alone in the hotel. You know, it was just like, great to have some space and to be able to consume an entire book on the drive down. And then of course to drive back when I had the return flight and on the flight itself. Oh, that's the other thing. The flights didn't have WI fi. What is this, 1936? They literally didn't have working WI fi. And where I would have thrown a fit. What am I going to do for two hours? Like, oh, poor me, what am I going to do for two hours? The plane going 500 miles an hour, 35,000ft in the sky. It doesn't have WI fi. Listen how ridiculous that is. I would have let that be an additional thing that pissed me off. This would have been a multi layered pissed off sandwich by now. Like, think about it, Lori, this way. Oh, yeah, right. The.

You know, when I called you, I was surprised that you were so calm because I was like, oh shit, I'm definitely going to get an earful.

Yeah. And not just calm. In a great mood. Like in the past, the bottom bun would have been the delays. The meet would have been the cancellation. The cheese would have been I have to borrow mom's car and do a two hour drive to another airport. The lettuce would have been finding a last minute hotel. Right. And so on. So this would have been my. My discomfort shit burger.

Yeah.

My pissed off burger special. Yep. And instead, man, it was just awesome. It was just awesome. And so I've been referencing this book in my head that the Comfort Crisis literally every day. And it's just become such a good tool for me to take moments that would have made my life unhappy and reframed them to make my life not just happy, but happier by finding how am I going to grow in this? Or what's for me in this.

Yeah, it's so interesting how we take all these little moments and make them a personal hell. And you know, you think like, if this goes wrong, then the whole day is wrong. And I think the comfort crisis, what it did for me was just say, like, it really is all part of it. And you don't actually get to experience that joy and the great stuff without going through these other things. You have to have this variance of emotion. And it's mind training. Like the person who can deal with all of the other things that are not comfortable or fun is the person who's really going to have just a happy life that feels easier even though there's no easier things happening than the next person.

It's funny, there's a big payoff and there is an easier life if you lean into more discomfort. Here's a real example. You and I bought rucksacks and if you guys don't know what those are, ruck rucking. I know it sounds like when my dog is swearing with an R in front, but it's not. It's a real word. Rucking is, you know, like when soldiers have to wear their big rucksack and hike for, you know, 10, 15, 20 miles. And they sell these rucksacks where you put a 25 or 45 or whatever pound plate in the sack in this backpack. It's tight to your body so it's comfortable to wear, but it makes your run or your walk that much tougher. And we heard in the book the Comfort Crisis that there was a study done of soldiers that carry 45 pounds or more in their rucksacks for an extended period of time. And it found that an hour to two hour walk with a rucksack on can torch 1500-2500 calories instead of just 2 to 400 calories. So of course that was. Laurie and I looked at each other like, wait a minute, we're already doing these four and a half mile walks every single day, at least once a day while we're up here at the lake house. And when we're back home, you know, we do a couple three mile walks a day. Why don't we buy rucksacks, throw them on, and see if it totally changes our body? So my whole point is we're already doing the walks, but they've gotten comfortable. And we decided let's voluntarily make them very uncomfortable for the hour to hour and a half that we're walking. But in return, life will be better. Life will be happier because now we're torching 8 to 10 times the calories doing something we're already spending time doing, which will give us a happier life because I get to eat more cheeseburgers.

Now. We have not done this yet because I'm still waiting on the backpack portion.

We got the plates, but the plates.

Are sitting on the counter. And I have not been able to move it because it is very heavy. Now I can, but I'm like, oh my God, that's heavy. Like, I can't move it off the counter, but I'm gonna carry this for four and a half miles. Okay, but we're doing it. So we'll report back. I just saw it shipped out this morning, so it should be. I'm excited for it any minute.

I guess if we had to leave you with anything, we've been. We realized, like, we truly, consciously realized we had gotten too comfortable and it was making us soft physically and mentally. And then we realized in reading this book, it's just a few choices to get your edge back. And your edge is going to be your metaphorical and your literal edge in life. And that's what we're on a mission to get.

And I want to say how we noticed. I think that one of my biggest things that I noticed within myself and even you is like, I noticed we were complaining about little things more frequently that should not bother us. So maybe if you're noticing that you're kind of like really resisting, like challenging things or putting things off a lot and it's piling up and you're getting frustrated or your Mondays are really irritating because you hate all of the extra little admin work or housework is starting to bother you. That means you're too comfortable. All of these things should start to feel. If you're chasing discomfort, should just start to feel like a part of life. Like you move from task to task with less frustration and resistance. That's really the ultimate goal, is to be able to do all of these things in your life that are challenging, but do them with a lot less resistance, mental resistance and physical resistance around them. And that's going to make your life feel easier if you chase that discomfort.

I love it.

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