Want to know how to embrace feeling uncomfortable? You have probably heard that you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable to be successful, but maybe you struggle with putting it into practice. If so, then The Discomfort Zone: How to Get What You Want by Living Fearlessly might just be the book for you.

In The Discomfort Zone, Farrah is on a mission to change the way we think about discomfort. At the beginning of the book, Farrah states that “discomfort is never as bad as we think it will be…. It also never lasts as long as we think it will… discomfort is not a constant; it is fleeting. Neither is discomfort debilitating; on the contrary, it is empowering”. This sets the tone for the rest of the book which Farrah calls Brief Moments of Discomfort.

Farrah believes that anyone can deal with a brief moment of discomfort. She breaks the process down into three stages:

1. Acknowledge your fears
2. Identify your moment of discomfort
3. Reimagine discomfort

Learning to embrace discomfort is because “You can’t escape discomfort. In fact, those very situations where we feel alarmingly out of our depth are crucial for progression and success”.

Discomfort is not only a part of life but apart you need to embrace because discomfort pushes us to grow. Life will throw obstacles in your way and the challenge is to embrace the obstacle rather than becoming an obstacle evader, obstacle blamer or obstacle magnifier.

One of the chapters of The Discomfort Zone is devoted to feedback. Farrah states that “feedback is one of the simplest and most transformational tools out there. … it’s only transformational if you’re getting it from the right person at the right time”. Hearing feedback is uncomfortable for most people, but learning to take feedback on board is super important for your long-term future.

When it comes to discomfort there are two types: expected or unexpected. Whilst you can prepare for the expected discomfort you can’t prepare for the unexpected to you need to build up your dealing with discomfort in the moment muscles. In order to do this, Farrah suggests “You need to throw yourself into discomfort. Some of it can be major, some of it minor. The point is you need to experience it to help build a pattern for when things get really uncomfortable”.

As with anything you get better through practice. Therefore, it is important to be putting yourself regularly into situations that make you experience discomfort and as Farrah said some of these can be minor.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed The Discomfort Zone. Farrah has a wonderful writing style, which isn’t surprising as she is the Editor-in-Chief for the UK edition of Cosmopolitan. I also loved the idea of ‘Brief Moments of Discomfort’ and feel that embracing that attitude would be transformational. It helps to put discomfort in a manageable context and remind all of us that the discomfort will be short and therefore totally within our capabilities to handle it.

If you like the sound of The Discomfort Zone you can buy a copy for yourself here.

This book was read as part of PropelHer’s Book, which is a women-only non-fiction book club. If you are an ambitious women who want to read books to support your personal development and growth then you can find out more about PropelHer’s Book Club at www.propelher.co.uk/bookclub/