If you’ve never been to a self-help/personal development/coaching seminar thingy, I strongly urge you to check one out. Feel free to email me if you need help figuring out where to look

Now, I’ve been doing this “personal development” thang for a while and, if I’m completely honest–which I’m about to be right now–it sometimes makes me want to roll my eyes (which is one of my “things”–just ask my boyfriend) and/or barf. But it makes me want to do that stuff because deep down, I’m uncomfortable. For example, at the event this weekend, we walked in to a bunch of people wanting to give high fives and stuff and it just felt…weird…to me, hence why I wanted to roll my eyes and barf. But I stuck it out and, my goodness, was it worth it. BEYOND worth it.

So, if you haven’t explored this world yet because you met someone in it who made you feel like it was all just a crock, I’m telling you right now that you HAVE to get past that. You MUST keep going, because beyond the shit that makes you wanna barf or roll your eyes is complete and total transformation.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t need to change, asshole.” And to you I say (sarcastically, of course), “You’re right! Great attitude!”

But seriously, growth is actually something we crave–it’s a human need. So, I invite you to start getting uncomfortable because that’s when you grow. Progress doesn’t come out of comfort. It comes from a breakdown or destruction, both of which are uncomfortable to experience, of old beliefs or patterns to make way for new ones.

If you’ve taken any introductory psychology course you probably know that humans will do way more to avoid pain than we’ll do to try to achieve pleasure. This explains why we stay in abusive relationships, keep smoking even though we’ve been told we’re killing ourselves, keep eating and not exercising even though we don’t want to be fat anymore, etc. The pain associated with leaving a partner and going into the unknown, no matter how abusive the relationship, far outweighs the pain of staying, where things are certain and consistent and, well, comfortable, even though that sounds nuts. Quitting smoking seems far more painful than not quitting and changing a diet and exercising seems far more painful than sticking to what you’re already comfortable doing, even though you’re a fat, unhealthy lump. Am I right??? You know I am.

So take a couple minutes to get really honest about the people and/or activities you try to avoid. Why do they make you so uncomfortable? What might you lose that you value if you were to get uncomfortable? What do you really, truly want and how is trying to avoid being uncomfortable getting in the way of you having it?

There is so much value in getting uncomfortable. That’s where breakthroughs happen. So let’s get uncomfortable! I highly recommend it