I had the absolute pleasure of coaching a team of corporate sales guys (with one gal) this past week. Over two days of intensive Team Advantage kick-off work (my page linked), we laughed so much that my stomach muscles hurt. This team really knows how to both have fun and work hard (see my prior post, “Playing for Extraordinary Results…linked here). This was a bit of a surprise from the pre-meeting interviews with them and their leader. They had expressed feelings of overwhelm with their workloads and skepticism and discomfort around another “training” event. Thankfully they got past that feeling of discomfort, worked with a very positive attitude, and then finished with an extraordinary business plan for their team.
At dinner, one of the guys reminded me of the discomfort at the beginning of a challenging activity. He explained about his running exercise, “People seem to think that I wake up all excited about getting up and out for a run. This is not true at all. It takes pure discipline to get me up and out there and for the first 20 minutes or so I am really suffering. Then I start to get into a flow and by the time I am done I am exhilarated and feeling great and glad that I dragged myself out there.” I completely agreed with him about my morning walks; it takes a lot of discipline and strong self talk to give up the comfort of my bed and make it happen!
It is the same in any activity you are doing or starting for your growth. The people who can stick with it past the initial discomfort, get into a flow and then feel the great exhilaration of success are the ones that keep growing and thriving.
If you are comfortable and everything is easy then you are not really living to your fullest potential. Take a few small steps and push past the discomfort and if at all possible laugh a lot while you are doing it. The energy from all that laughing last week was amazing!
photo credit: victor bezrukov via Flickr creative commons