Several years ago I wrote an article titled "Comfort Kills" that spoke to the dangers of becoming complacent and regressing into a life of leisure, ease, and subsequent mediocrity. But time and experiece have caused me to rethink my original premise...
It isn't that comfort kills. Rather, it is the fear of discomfort that leads to our destruction.
There is a common sentiment amongst hardened men who realize that the pursuit of being comfortable above all else is detrimental. They know from experience that embracing challenges, rather than running from them, builds the resilience and fortitude necessary to survive.
And though this is true, it overlooks the deeper mechanics at work in the process.
The desire for comfort is in itself a survival instinct.
It is the pain of hunger that drives the predator to hunt.
The signal of being cold led our ancestors to harness fire to keep warm.
Lessons from the Cave of Discomfort
Without such inherent motivation to be comfortable, it is unlikely that our species nor few others would survive.
Yet, we often treat this trait as a flaw rather than a feature. We demonize our desire as a mistake in our design and view it as a dangerous wild animal that must be tamed & restrained.
But the ability to do so is the privilege of living in modern luxury... where food, warmth, and comfort exist in unimaginable abundance for the vast majority of us.
So much so that we must intentionally curtail our consumption and our inactivity to remain fit and healthy.
We falsely identify seeking comfort as the culprit, leading us to ignore the true villain, which is the fear that arises in the face of the unknown. We avoid something we are afraid of being painful not in response to the pain itself, but the lack of certainty in how long it will last or if it will end.
Seeking comfort then is no longer the issue.
Instead, consistently running and shying away from any discomfort proves to be the real problem at hand.
Thus, the game becomes less about self-denial and more about self-realization.
And as a result, we learn to ask ourselves better questions from which we can make better decisions.I absolutely love being comfortable and make no apologies about that.
But I'm also more than willing to embrace discomfort whenever it's necessary. "The treasure you seek lies in the cave you fear to enter," so says Joseph Campbell.
Our comfort then, is that treasure to be found in the cave of discomfort we are afraid of.