comfortable – From the desk of Adam Thomas

Extremes wear us down

If the light is uncomfortable growth and the dark is comfortable stagnation, then darkness is home for many of us.

We spend a lot of our time in the dark.

So much so that unfiltered sunlight hurts.

It hurts so much that it can convince us to go into the dark and stay there.

That’s why it’s dangerous to go out into the sunlight and stay there. Too much pain at once convinces us that the sun isn’t for us.

It is.

Humans don’t do extremes well. We can manage them fine. When our backs aren’t against the wall, we retreat as soon as we can to comfort.”

The best change is a sustainable one.

Using this metaphor, we have to realize that when we want to go directly into the sun from the darkness, we need to plan “shade” periods.

The shade is a tool. It allows us to take a break from the sun while not going completely back into darkness. We can recharge, and see our next steps.

Sometimes we just need to take a break.

A retreat isn’t “defeat.”

Pick one

Take in a lot, make tiny mistakes, and improve our heuristics for filtering. This is uncomfortable.

Take in very little, get risk-averse, and don’t develop systems. This is comfortable.

The former option makes sure you can tear little holes in any ideological bubble. The latter leaves you trapped.

Experience is a choice until it isn’t. Life comes at you fast, and events like layoffs and death often leave us to remember the risks we didn’t take, instead of the comfort we had when we didn’t.