Comfort KILLS!

The greatest enemy of achievement.

“You need to get out of your comfort zone!!“

“Growth only happens out of your comfort zone!!“

I’m sure you have heard a variation of one of those statements from a motivational speaker at least once.

But what does it mean? What’s the deal with “comfort?” Why is everyone against it? And why does Elon Musk sleep on the floor at one of his factories?

Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, was one of the wealthiest individuals of his time. Despite his position of power and wealth, Marcus Aurelius emphasized the importance of self-discipline, virtue, and inner peace in his writings known as the "Meditations." He believed in living a life of moderation, resilience, and moral integrity, even in the face of challenges and temptations.

Although Marcus Aurelius had everything he needed to live a comfortable and shielded life, he advocated against it. He preached self-discipline (which is often painful), and moral integrity.

Nothing truly worth doing is ever easy. The more worth doing the thing is, the more difficult it is.

Success is always correlated with difficulty.

The person who is willing to consistently forgo comfort and endure hardship WILL become successful.

The reason why you don’t have that successful business you want is because you quit when it gets difficult.

It’s the same reason why you don’t have the degree you want, the body you want, the life you want, and the family you want - comfort.

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When I look back at some of the most monumental achievements I have recorded, none of them was ever easy or comfortable.

I was often stressed, lonely, tired, sore, and borderline miserable, in some cases.

Now, when I experience a level of stress while working on something, I immediately know that I am about to break another glass ceiling and move to the next level in my career, and it pushes me to work even harder.

I know this because when other people get to this level of difficulty, they quit.

So if I keep going, more for me.

This is the thinking you need to adopt.

You need to embrace difficulty, stress, challenges, turmoil, and chaos.

Even as I run my software company, Softech Ltd, I have to regularly remind myself that if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, and it would be worthless.

One of my mentors once told me; Do not let early signs of success be the cause of your long-term failure. Continue to pursue bigger goals militantly.

When you remove all the need for comfort you become most competitive.

Comfort is the antithesis of performance.

Comfort is the killer of greatness.

The greatest men and women who have lived knew this.

Vusi Thembekwayo, one of Africa’s greatest entrepreneurs and speakers said this: "Success does not come from comfort zones. It comes from constantly challenging yourself and pushing beyond your limits."

It is, however, tempting to start returning comfort after realizing the initial fruits of discipline and hard work. You start to forget what took you there.

Sometimes, you have to create artificial discomfort (or voluntary suffering), to make yourself hungry for more.

This why Francis Ngannou, Cameroonian MMA fighter, and professional boxer returns to Cameroon after every big win and eats “achombo“ (street food).

He is creating discomfort to remind himself of where he started from, and why he needs to keep rising.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX does this by taking on enormous challenges in pursuit of his ambitious goals. More often than you would think, this billionaire actually sleeps on the floor at one of his factories.

Disdain comfort!

Do hard things!

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Cheers!

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