Why You Have To Embrace Pain In Order To Grow

Run towards difficult situations, don’t avoid them

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

We tend to run away from painful situations by nature. We are literally built that way; our brains are wired for survival.

But the truth is sometimes those situations are exactly the ones we should be running towards.

I was reminded of this recently when talking to one of my friends about their career. They had recently taken up a high profile role in their organisation that was causing them a lot of stress. They were being advised to go back to what they were doing before as it would make for an easier life.

Not long ago I would have agreed. Why put keep yourself in a situation that involves a high amount of stress? Especially when there is an easier path available.

Life is too short to be uncomfortable, right?

This view was honed to perfection when I worked for all of about 9 months for one of the world’s largest management consultancy firms and I hated every moment of it. I like to say that it was the 16 hour days trapped side by side in tiny meeting rooms dotted with people I couldn’t always relate to.

But the truth is I hated it because I was constantly uncomfortable. I was well outside of my usual zone of knowledge and I…