If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
The benefits of voluntary discomfort
What’s up, y’all!
I can’t wait to share the week’s most exciting news with you: Winco carries salt and pepper seasoned pistachios in their bulk section! I have had a weakness for salted pistachios for a while, but when you add a little pepper to the mix, the pistachios transform into crack. Seriously, you’ve got to try them.
I have a feeling that I’m not going to be able to find them in Costa Rica, so I’m enjoying them while I can.
I know that many of the things I take for granted now aren’t going to be readily available in Costa Rica. In a way, that’s part of the draw. There are going to be days that will be completely frustrating, days that will make us question everything.
It’s going to be hard to adjust to a culture with a different way of life, not to mention a different language! Not just hard, it’s going to be downright uncomfortable.
But the only way to grow is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you saw the Netflix documentary, Stutz, some of this may sound familiar. Below is the illustration from the book by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels that describes the Reversal of Desire, one of The Tools.
In order to reach life’s endless possibilities, we have to leave our comfort zone and move through the cloud of pain. Pain is our fear of the unknown, and it’s what holds us back from achieving our dreams. It’s cliché, but no pain, no gain.
Instead of fearing the unknown and staying trapped in your comfort zone, reverse that desire. Embrace the unknown, because that’s where all the good stuff is.
Besides discovering new opportunities, there’s another good reason to move to a place where we’ll have to go without some of our American luxuries. Stoicism teaches us the value of voluntary discomfort. The logic behind this is that if the worst happens to you, it won’t be a big deal, because you’ve prepared for it.
Try it out yourself: sleep on the floor a couple of nights. Take a cold shower. Walk or take public transportation to work. Wear the wrong clothes for the weather.
Not only will this make you appreciative of what you have, it will help lessen your fear of going without things. If you try out discomfort when it’s voluntary, it will seem a little less foreign when it’s forced upon you unexpectedly. You’ll be able to cope better.
Even though Seneca was an advocate of trying this out for a few days at a time, he reminded us not to get cocky about it, though:
“There is no reason, however, why you should think that you are doing anything great; for you will merely be doing what many thousands of slaves and many thousands of poor men are doing every day. But you may credit yourself with this item, — that you will not be doing it under compulsion, and that it will be as easy for you to endure it permanently as to make the experiment from time to time. Let us practice our strokes on the “dummy”; let us become intimate with poverty, so that Fortune may not catch us off our guard. We shall be rich with all the more comfort, if we once learn how far poverty is from being a burden.”
We’ll spend this week the same way we spent last week: getting rid of our possessions. gnob is making great progress with Danny Bonaduce and soon that will be yet another thing we’re letting go of. Waiting on some good weather to take the Fairlady out and get some DMV papers squared away. That’s a whole debacle in itself, but once it’s sorted, we can list her for sale. Every day, one step closer!
Video of the Week
Still wrapping up the footage from Louisiana. My sister asked gnob to look at the generator on her RV, because it wouldn’t work. After finding the fuel line full of holes in this video, he did some research and it looks like it was bugs that caused it!
Check out the follow up video over on Site to See.
Quote of the Week
That wraps up another week with Snale Racing! We’ll leave you with the quote that was most powerful for us this week. If speaking softly doesn’t work, carry a big stick anyway. Peace!✌
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