Get In Loser: We're Embracing Discomfort
How uncomfortable moments are shaping my future.
Moments before I began writing this, I made a trip to the local post office to ship off orders from the release of my first SEP22 top. I’d been working on creating a shirt for months, but it wasn’t until I walked out of the post office that I felt like I had truly checked that box. At the start of the year, I told myself I would make one shirt—and as of just yesterday that goal has been accomplished.
Shirt aside, this year has been full of wins, big and small. With today marking one month until my 30th birthday, I’ve been especially reflective—feeling all the emotions birthdays usually surface for me, times ten. I’ve looked back on the highs and lows of the entire decade, with a particular focus on the milestones of these later years. Each year of my 20s built more and more momentum, but 29 has pulled on everything I’ve ever learned to stretch me in so many new ways.
The Results Are In: Ditch Your Comfort Zone
When I reflect on my last year, I’ve witnessed myself continue to evolve into a new woman, but looking back on those same moments, I found myself in so many uncomfortable places.
I was uncomfortable when I didn’t feel like I belonged in certain spaces. I was uncomfortable when I felt like I needed to teach myself to think in new ways, or unlearn old habits. I was uncomfortable when I didn’t know something I felt like I should’ve. In those moments, but I felt this icky feeling almost every time, but once the moment passed, I realized that offering up my comfort was a worthy price to pay.
What I’ve found is the more uncomfortable I’ve been, the more I’ve started to align with the life I actually want to live.
Growth Curve
What the plot reveals:
Comfort zones are expensive. They cost us the life we dream of, jeopardizing the very growth that makes our dreams a reality.
I still wrestle with those stretch spaces daily. Sometimes the discomfort feels awful, and the anticipation of it even worse. But I never doubt that on the other side, I’m one step closer to the life I want to create for myself.
A Costly Cling
We find ourselves in all kinds of uncomfortable places, but I’ve found there are a few core areas where our cling to comfort is the strongest:
In our Faith
What God asks of us can feel wildly uncomfortable: surrender. A true surrender puts us in a position of the least control, which is a place we seldom like to be. It means letting your Spirit guide you, even when you can’t see the outcome.
In our Relationships
There are endless ways we settle for comfort here. A few that come to mind:
Staying in relationships that aren’t for us because starting over feels too uncomfortable.
Avoiding boundaries because having the conversation feels too uncomfortable.
Endangering our most important relationships because refining our mindsets and behaviors brings us to uncomfortable places.
In our Environments
Moving to a new city, starting a new job, showing up to a gym class where you don’t know the movement. All of it can feel so uncomfortable. But these are often the very places where growth happens fastest.
Creating my first shirt with SEP22 was one of those faith spaces, leaning on relationships, in unfamiliar environments— it exposed me in ways that made me uncomfortable, made me ask questions and ask for help in ways I’m not always comfortable with, but the output: worth those icky feelings x10.
In all of these examples, we’re paying the price. The key is not to run from those spaces but to anchor yourself in accountability: a routine, a friend, a community that helps you stick with it long enough for the discomfort to feel negligible when compared to the returns.
Maybe it’s a challenge to yourself, where you’re leaning into one uncomfortable thing each day. We’re afforded the choice time and time again, and being comfortable is a price none of us can afford if we want to experience the lives we’ve always dreamt of.
Thank you so much for reading.
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Preach!