What in your business is making you uncomfortable?

Discomfort is an inevitable part of developing yourself and creating a thriving business. And while no one truly likes to be uncomfortable, there’s so much that we can gain from learning to thrive in discomfort.

Learn more in today’s episode:

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Discover the 5 secrets to run your business like a Special Operator: https://www.adamliette.com/sof

Transcript

Hope you're having a good day and hope you're getting after today and feeling that momentum that good stuff that happens to us when we're in that good place of flow and working from that place of real positive energy. That being said, some of the things we're going to introduce in this episode, man, they don't always relate immediately to the positive energy that we're often feeling within our business. And that's the idea that, so much of what we do, does create massive amounts of discomfort.

Matter of fact, almost everything that I've done worthwhile that I tell stories about, you know, the pivotable moments in my career and in my life, have always been accompanied with massive amounts of discomfort. And that's a good thing is discomfort is where we grow. Seth Godin said, you know, discomfort brings engagement and change, discomfort means you're doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they're hiding out in the comfortable zone. When you're uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more love that quote, because he's exactly right, you're doing something others unlikely to do. And that's really the sign of the fact that you're growing. And you're you're, you're moving into new areas, which is always exciting. I don't like being stagnant always like new opportunities, and just really putting myself out there. And just from my own personal life, there's really like four areas that have been really huge in the, in the amount of discomfort they've been accompanied with. The first was, I was a professional musician for a number of years, getting on stage. And until you get used to it until you lean into that, you know, there's nothing that makes a lot of people more uncomfortable than performing in in person like that. When I joined Special Ops, man, that was not only mental discomfort, there was a whole lot of physical discomfort. be perfectly frank, not the easiest trials that we had to go through to join that community. And a number of different things that cause great discomfort when I was an operator in a business, you know, being an operator is full of discomfort, it's just part of the gig. And now starting my own company was a massive amounts. And that's just been recently I'm really working through it, leaning into it. And I thought this was a good opportunity just to talk about discomfort.

And what it does to us the kind of triggers that it leads, leads us to, to automatically perceive. But then most importantly, how to move past that. Because when you're in discomfort, when you're in that zone, where you're not feeling like this is something you can do. You know, there's a way to judo flip it and make it into an opportunity, you know, something that is going to make you better, something that's going to advance you personally, professionally, spiritually, whatever it is, discomfort is the vehicle to doing that. And actually, it's scientifically proven that it does release dopamine, which is our you know, our make you feel happy chemical, it's a great thing that our brain does. So it's actually rewards us for this. So our brain is trying to tell us do new things guy, you know, and so why not lean into that. And actually, they've even noted that there's a unique part of the brain that's only activated when you see or experience completely new things. So before like diving into that I just want to ask are, are you the type of person that really wants to be punching the same card every single day? Or did you get into this, because you want to be doing something new, because you want to be doing something different? Because actually moving forward is something that propels you that makes you excited. Understand that if that is you, and if you're listening to the show, it probably is operators are not really known for being stagnant creatures. Like accepting that discomfort is part of it. And knowing that when you feel uncomfortable, it means you have to do it. And it's one of my personal favorite stories from running a business was I was asked to do something. And CEO said, Well, are you comfortable doing this? I said, Well, absolutely not. Which is why I have to. It was knowing that I wasn't comfortable immediately. I wasn't excited immediately. But I could see the end result and what it could do for the company made me realize I have to do this. And that's what propelled me down to many of these journeys.

So a couple of steps. First off when you are created with the uncomfortable situation or something that you have to tackle. First Man, go get a clear head walk away from your desk entirely. A lot often, some of us one lead, you know, jump into meetly into other stuff or into that project. Don't like don't distract yourself, like, let it sit, let that discomfort sit within you. One of my favorite reasons I have, I had the building that I work in, and I put my woodworking shop right next to me. So, in a matter of 20 seconds, I can be in my woodworking shop, working on a project. Why, because my workshop, it's like walks through, you'll hear some entrepreneurs go on long walks, when they need to reflect on something, I go into my workshop, there's nothing more therapeutic for me than just working on a project, sanding a piece of wood cutting some pieces down. And so I always have a project in flow. So I can always jump in. If I need that 2030 minutes off, to let something sit when I am uncomfortable. Trying to get into action right away will only make things worse, because you're not, you're still in that fight or flight mode, you're still in a bit of panic. So just let it sit, walk away, get that clear head. Once you have a clear head, identify the source of your discomfort.

What is it about this task, this project that's making you uncomfortable? What exactly is making you uncomfortable? You know, I first started doing customer interviews, I was afraid of making a mistake or doing something foolish on the phone, you know, not looking at the authority that I was supposed to be. When I later got into high ticket sales over the phone sales, you know, what was my biggest fear? Was? What if they said no? Well, no kidding? A number of them are going to say no, you know that going into it. Though accept that. Identify that source, though? What is it about this process, or this task that's making you uncomfortable? Once you know the source of your discomfort, you can begin with the end in mind. You can imagine, plan your own success, see it from the endpoint from the success, place, and reverse engineer, everything you did to make that success, map it out, make it real, create a story of what success looks like and feels like and tell that story to yourself. When we reverse engineer it, and we see the areas that are making us uncomfortable, we can think of mitigating things that we can do to make ourselves more comfortable to make ourselves in that moment when we know the discomforts coming. What can we do to actually make it a positive experience for us? What can we do to best set us up for those experiences? For example, I was uncomfortable doing customer interviews. So how did I do that part of my success strategy was to practice was to actually walk around my room in circles, like a crazy person talking to myself imagining the perfect interview, how does the perfect interview go? When you make it real, when you're able to put in those mitigating factors, and able to then engineer your own success, you're going to end up going into it with a whole lot more confidence.

And that's step four, take the plunge, just begin. Just get started, embrace it, whatever you need to do to make you feel whatever award you need to get on the back end of it, whether it's Hey, I'm going to do these sales calls, then I'm going and I'm going to go get a beer, like have that success, have that reward that's coming to you at the end of it and work towards that but take the plunge and just begin. And the final thing is communicate this the to those around you the fact that you were uncomfortable, the fact that this wasn't easy for you and you had to achieve some very personal wins in order to fulfill that task that was in front of you. And when I say communicate, it's talking to your boss or your line manager or you know those that are on the same level as you I'm talking to your team to your subordinates. You know, let letting them know even you feel discomfort even you sometimes get a project and are merely overwhelmed by what exactly you're supposed to do. When they see you come at them with that moment of vulnerability. It makes you a human. Okay. It makes you more realistic, more relatable.

And that's really a great thing that we can do for our teams is to be that superhuman when We need to be, but the human being that has all the flaws that they do as well. So that we they know it's okay. You can feel this way you do have a support system around you, we're here to help you. Even giving them the process that you use to confront the discomfort.

Because what I found is if I give my team a process or a roadmap, it's incredibly empowering for them. And they're able to move through almost any task I throw at them. No matter how difficult or arduous or just mind numbing some tasks are mind numbing, let's be honest. But if they have a roadmap, if they have a way of getting there, it makes it all the more better. I take a moment just to think today about something that has made you uncomfortable a particular project. How did you get through that? What were the steps that you took, if you can revert or re engineer what you did to make it through those discomfort zones. You have your template, you know what to do the next time discomfort comes to comes to bite because if it ain't coming today, it's coming soon. Discomfort will come to you. The key is how do we react to being discovered and find success?