Why We Seek Discomfort

There's one experience that stands out as the pinnacle of my discomfort seeking career. [Sports Announcer] Last stretch, you're almost there, baby. (crowd cheering) And, while finishing the Ironman may have been what I initially set out to do, to borrow cliché, it was the journey, not the race that really set my experience apart. It was about overcoming that mean voice in my head. We all have one. We usually can drown it out by turning on Netflix or scrolling through our phones. But Ironman training requires me to spend hours alone, running, riding, swimming with no headphones, and so my only company was that voice. And now I'm alone in this apartment talking to a camera and I have to go for a 40 minute run after that five hour and 15 minute bike ride. That's my day. That's my full day is that ride. And now this coming run. But luckily I had a mentor to get me through those dark moments. But these are the moments, right? Yeah. These are the moments where you, you don't wanna do it. You do it anyway. Yeah. That's Aaron Ferguson, a celebrity trainer, notably Will Smith's coach, but he's so much more than that. He's my training partner. And more importantly, my friend. We're just afraid of so many things of like having put in this much work and then my tire popping, you know, on the race. Yep. It's like for what, fucking six months. And then this shit happens. Kidding me. So I think about that a lot. I'm like, Yep. What if it's not worth it? Well, it's always worth it. It's just, you won't want to get attached to the result. The result for us is who we get to be because of it. It doesn't matter if you finish or not, it matters that you put in the work to prepare yourself as best you can. What happens on the day happens on the day mate. Aaron taught me that striving for personal excellence is worth effort. No matter the costs. In terms of having fun, going out with your friends, doing all these things, you kind of lose that. And over the last five months, I just feel so there are moments when you're just like, God, why did I sign up for this? It's just so painful. With each day, I became not just physically stronger, but mentally stronger too. I became better at dealing with that voice and eventually even transforming it into an encouraging positive force. So when I was lagging behind on race day. 'Cause we were having a look at your timing and, and you'd started to really fade towards the last leg. And I was like, oh, he's gone. When you're in an endurance event of that nature, you just don't come back because it's like, it's not like you can grit your teeth and, and knuckle down for the next 60 seconds. Like you gotta knuckle...