Increase discomfort. Increase candor.

Challenge and capacity feed on each other in a symbiosis, a cycle of exponential growth; as we begin to think big, our big thoughts blossom. So go ahead, increase discomfort. Increase candor.

As we become more comfortable with discomfort, so our capacity to do big things increases. Know that if what makes us uncomfortable seems small, it’s not the same thing as small thinking. Each challenge is our worthy opponent. As we take on bigger challenges, so the next larger challenge becomes more manageable. The more we overcome, the more we can overcome.

There are no three easy steps, but when we become comfortable with discomfort, we will accomplish great things. We will feel high on the abundance of life.

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Comment by Jen Crippen on April 13, 2009 at 8:53pm: We all hear that we have to be comfortable in discomfort, however - it's interesting to note how we handle that discomfort with an honest inventory of ourselves.

Either a) handle it w/ bravery no matter what the out come is b) handle it in fear w/ the intent to manipulate the outcome.

There is often a blurry line of where our motives come from, sometimes it is unrecognizable to ourselves. I know I've sat in excruciating discomfort thinking I was embracing it w/ bravery, later to find out I was shaking in my boots subconsciously manipulating an outcome.

With that, embrace discomfort! Get quiet with the discomfort, what are you going to do with it? Feel it in your body, let it move you into action, walk in bravery, certainty, then trust and let it set it free! Enter, candor & humility.

To try and control it is pure illusion and waste of time anyways.

Comment by Ginny Hayataka on April 13, 2009 at 8:02pm: Curiously, this reminded me of a discussion I've enjoyed before about 'volition'. Its meaning in the dictionary is not how I think of it: dictionary says it's about making a decision. My sense of the word has much to do with what pushes the decision: whether the 'engine' is internal or external. I obsever that only rare individuals actually consider and undertake a given course of action at a specific time absent some outside 'engine' pushing them. Otherwise said, discomfort is imposed from outside somehow, resulting in decision or action; that this is the most common 'engine'. But I believe that one can decide to create self discomfort merely for the purpose of discovering something new about one's self (enhanced skills, limitations or dislikes, fresh insight, etc) As for candor, being open about one's motives is, in my view, the necessary for personal integrity and respect for others.

Comment by Jan Leaton on April 13, 2009 at 7:43pm: Amy: We're in the same boat - only mine launched later. I was afraid of drowning, going adrift, or sinking. The economic crisis shook me out of my comfort zone and made me take a gook look at whether I still had something to offer to the world at 72. It takes courage to take any kind of risk - especially if you have lived in a comfort zone of retirement for many years. But discomfort pokes a hole in complacency and courage gives us the incentive to step out, step up and step forward. And then lack of confidence steps in. (Will I sink? Can I swim?) I've learned that the encouragement of those who are like-minded have been the key to my building a new boat. It is sleek, can travel the world, and calls no port its last destination.

In the last few months I have learned that no one sails alone. We need the wisdom of those who have explored before us and who have arrived at distant shores. We need to listen to those we have come to trust to be good mentors as we strive to think BIGGER about ourselves and our world.

Candor/honesty: I saw the reward of that tonight. I had a contract with a printer to make very large stand-up posters that would be useable with dry-mark markers. They turned out to not be erasable! Okay as all presenters we adapt - but what after?

I had to make a decision when I got home. Here was a printer who had said he wanted to talk to me about the BYS program - call him after the presentation. (the posters cost me $300 with tax) Did I want them to make good on the posters and sacrifice a potential ideal client or be dishonest, tell them that everything was great and work for a consulting contract..

Decided that building trust and credibility goes hand and hand with relationships and that if I didn't tell them of the problem, they well might use this process for another client who well might sue them if it was a large project. Better to lose the prospect and be honest than have them realize later that I had not advised them and it came back to bite them because I was not transparent.

RESULT just a while ago: Let us take back the posters and make them dry-mark perfect for you. Thank you for letting us know. Look forward to discussing how your can help us, next week!

When we put honor and candor up front - trust and credibility allow us to encourage others tot think and live BIGGER.

Comment by Coach Davender on April 13, 2009 at 7:40pm: For this to work, candor must be accompanied by compassion. Candor without compassion is brutality. It freezes the desire to move forward, it increases resistance. Candor with compassion is love - it heats up passion, generates energy, dissolves friction.

Comment by Donald Wickham on April 13, 2009 at 5:58pm: Comfort leads to complacency which leads to stop trying. Are we (am I) afraid to try because once we succeed the next hurdle is even higher? When this is our (my) view instead of seeing the challenge/obstacle as a stepping stone, we become paralyzed. Let us press on to the upward call. Anyone can give up. False comfort is addictive but NOT fulfilling.

Comment by Ross Mitton on April 13, 2009 at 5:58pm: Don't get me wrong; I'm not a military freak, make love not war:) However my biggest takeaway from my time in the Army was learning to do hard things.
I embrace the couch regularly, but I never would have beaten the black dog of depression without my workflow on Internet Business.
PS Believe in the MasterMind theory? Come to my MasterMind diary at MasterMology.com and let me know what you think.

Comment by Edree Allen-Agbro on April 13, 2009 at 5:55pm: To me, candor is another word for someone's "relevant truth." One way I think about it in a bigger way is to decide that I deserve nothing less than the truth of a person's thoughts and experience. And that they deserve nothing less from me. Of coure what I share or ask of others will be respectful of the full circumstances, but will not be determined by levels of comfort. Candor can set us free.

Comment by Amy Franko on April 13, 2009 at 5:14pm: Starting my own company was a huge lesson in increasing discomfort! If I had waited until I was "comfortable" I wouldn't be here today. The last couple months alone I really had to step out of my comfort zone to create some workshops I wasn't entirely sure I could pull off - but ya know what? I did it anyway! They were successful, and I learned a lot about my capacity to think bigger about myself and what I do for others in the world.

As for candor - to me that means candor with others and candor with ourselves. When we have a success (or we stumble), share it with someone else in a way they will learn from it. When we're not sure we can pull something off - acknowledge that discomfort within ourselves, but don't let it hold us back!

Comment by Dan Beresford on April 13, 2009 at 4:54pm: Many people think BIG but it goes nowhere. I believe that THINK BIG is great but limiting if all you do is think. Add a little passion, LOVE BIG! Love your ideas, dream about them, inspire yourself with your love, believe in your ideas and love them. Don`t just think them, write them down, dream them, tell people about them be passionate about them! Embrace them fully and then you will have energy, and action beyond belief. Discomfort may cause the thought but love will cause the action. The inner thought coming from the heart represents the real motives and desires. These are the cause of action.`Raymond Holliwell

Comment by Jan Leaton on April 13, 2009 at 4:44pm: Growing takes commitment and the courage to take risk. As a senior, I know it is hard to step out of one's comfort zone; however, once the first step is taken, the next and the next are easier as you listen to and allow others you trust to walk beside you and encourage you to set fear behind, and embrace the can do's in our futures. Thought is the mightiest motivator of change and accomplishment. Never stop thinking BIG.