We all hit plateaus where our success starts to feel routine and stagnant. April Shprintz explains why introducing deliberate discomfort is the secret to breaking through these mental blocks. She shares her own struggle with getting too comfortable and the major shift that’s happening right now on this very show. You’ll learn why staying in your comfort zone blocks your creativity and happiness. She issues a direct challenge to help you push past your self-imposed limits. It’s time to stop settling for corporate autopilot and step into your true potential.
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The Value Of Deliberate Discomfort
Celebrating Two Hundred Fifty Episodes
I am so glad you’re here. I cannot believe this is the 250th episode. It has flown by so fast. It feels like yesterday and years ago that we started talking about winning mindset, what that means and how it can help you. I’m so excited that you’re here. I appreciate you. I want you to know that I couldn’t do this without you and I wouldn’t want to. I hope that the things that you’ve read over the time that we’ve been together has made an impact on you and helped your life. There is nothing in the world. That matters more to me than helping people be their best selves and helping them believe in themselves.
If you don't continue to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, you get pretty stagnant. Share on XThe Trap Of Staying Comfortable
Separate but related. Here’s something that I have come to believe about myself. If I don’t continue to put myself in uncomfortable situations, I get pretty stagnant. I was on a girls trip to Savannah with a great friend of mine. She and I did a deliberate discomfort challenge a few years ago together. Basically, it’s based on a book written by Jason VanCamp and a bunch of other authors, former Green Beret. It’s a two-month challenge. It has all these different modalities and it’s a lot. I can’t believe I did it. Also, looking back, it feels like a million years ago.
That little bit of fear is telling you it's important. It's telling you it will uplevel your life. Share on XLessons From Hard Challenges
That was a ton to put myself through but the lesson that I got from it, I love. There are people that do that challenge in 60 days. You have to do two workouts a day and call people and read a book. You do all of these things that I wouldn’t tell people to do all the time. Not operate your life like that. It doesn’t allow for the free space that lets cool creative things happen. It does not allow for any fun. I’m sorry, Jason. I mean this with all due respect, but it’s not fun.
Why Growth Requires Friction
However, what it did teach me is how much putting yourself in an area of discomfort regularly helps you grow. While she and I were laughing and couldn’t believe we did this workout life-changing program together because it seemed almost too much. There’s a 75 hard. There are all these kinds of programs. This one just did it across every different facet of your life, but what I realized was this. Not getting uncomfortable, not deliberately putting yourself in a place of discomfort means that you’re just stagnant and you’re not growing. You’re not doing different things.
We lose the drive to push ourselves as adults. It's time to get uncomfortable and chase greatness again. Share on XMaybe this isn’t true for everybody, but I think it is. It’s true for me. You will just get in a rut. You’ve got to be doing the kinds of things that make you uncomfortable. The thing that makes you nervous because that discomfort, that little bit of fear is telling you it’s important. It’s telling you that it will uplevel you. It is telling you that it will make your life better right after you peed your pants. Maybe not really but that is how it feels.
Finding Your Discomfort Interval
I want to encourage you to incorporate something that makes you uncomfortable in your life at a regular interval. For some people, this is going to be once a month. For some people, it might be once a year. For me, I’m going to go uncomfortable once a day to once a week. Depending on what my schedule is. What I have noticed is when I’m doing that regularly, I’m the happiest. Now, I’m nervous about it. Don’t get me wrong.
Avoiding discomfort means you aren't growing. Pick one thing that scares you today and do it anyway. Share on XStepping Into The Video Age
It makes me feel fulfilled and excited about what’s coming. It gets me to push myself the way that little kids seem to push themselves every single day. We lose some of that as an adult. First, I want to thank you for being here. Second, I want to give you very tough homework, let’s get uncomfortable. Let’s do things that scare us more. Third, I’m not going to ask you to do anything that I’m not going to do. In the next 5 or 10 episodes, you’re going to notice that Winning Mindset Mastery is not only going to be available in audio anymore. It is also going to be available via video, so we can look at each other and feel like we’re talking to each other right in the moment.
It's the things that make us nervous that actually make us the happiest and most fulfilled. Share on XLeaving The Comfort Zone Behind
I have had folks telling me to do this for years. I was a news anchor. I know how. Whether it’s I was afraid or I was lazy. I think it’s a little more lazy than afraid but whatever it was. I wasn’t doing it. It made me uncomfortable. I realized, “Let’s do the uncomfortable thing.” Before episode 260, you’ll be able to find Winning Mindset Mastery not only in audio, but also in video.
We can have an even more in touch discussion. You can leave me comments. Tell me things that you want me to do differently and what you want me to talk about. All those sorts of things. Most importantly, I’m just going to be doing something that makes me a little less comfortable than I normally am. I’d love for you to do it, too. Go find that thing that makes you uncomfortable. It takes you out of that comfort zone and into greatness. I know you can do it. Here’s to your success.
