Are You Uncomfortable or Comfortable?
Want to know the Secret to Success? You may be surprised it has to do with various times you are uncomfortable learning skills you think are beneath you and don’t like.
As a substitute teacher I teach how to do a great handshake as students enter the classroom. Some refuse, declaring, “I’m UNCOMFORTABLE.” Stubborn kids use this word to avoid learning new skills. Learning these may be uncomfortable at first, but can be very valuable in the long term. Avoiding new skills stunts education, personal growth and may be CO$TLY.
As a kid I stubbornly resisted my Dad as he REALLY made me uncomfortable: HOWEVER he taught me the secret to success.
1- When my sister was sick, I was forced to take her girly clarinet lesson! Result? I now make $$ teaching clarinet.
2- Dad forced me to learn to play the saxophone. Result? I teach saxophone privately making $$.
3- The day after I graduated from High School, my Dad said, what are you doing today? I said “I dunno.” He said, “get in the car” driving me to a 2-mile long road with factories on it. He said, “Get out! Go up to every business and ask for a job” (making me very uncomfortable). “Call me when you get a job, or at the end of the street, and I’ll pick you up!” (Fortunately, I got a job at the first factory. They put me to work immediately, sanding the sides of plastic playing cards and making chess sets.)
Result: When I was out of a job for long periods having 4 children and wife to support, instead of sitting home and sulking, I went door to door until I got jobs. My family didn’t suffer!
4- Dad again made me very uncomfortable as he taught me to repair (glaze) our old 2-1/2 story farmhouse windows. He made me do this twice a year. Result: I was able to help devastated homeowners repair/glaze windows after tornados and hurricanes.
5- Dad made me uncomfortable as I was forced to install strips of drywall and then “tape and mud” it. After finishing I had to apply a second layer. Lastly, I had to paint it with a sand float finish. Result: Drywalled the 2nd floor of my and wife’s 1st house, doubling its value in less than 3 years.
6- My life was quite uncomfortable being commanded to have a 5:00 a.m. daily paper route, then feed horses, feed dogs, feed cats, mow lawn, shovel snow, pick up fallen fruit from trees and shovel horse manure. Result: I outworked all my coworkers at corporations earning me awards, honors and bonuses.
7- I was uncomfortable when made to wash dishes nightly. Result: I received “meal jobs (washing dishes)” at College Fraternities which paid all my meals.
8- Made to get job at a gas station requiring an uncomfortable old 3-speed bicycle 34-mile daily ride. Result: Paid for 4-years college education only requiring $1000 in loans which I quickly paid.
Education’s Goal
The goal of education should not be to be comfortable or uncomfortable. The goal must be attaining knowledge for success later in life. Comfort hinders education, limits creativity, slows advancement, stops creativity and costs those with poor education big opportunities and $$$$!
The Secret to Success?
Stop fighting learning the skills making you uncomfortable. Your value to potential employers and in life is the sum total of your experiences. Don’t quit your job just because you don’t like it. Learn patience from it and you’ll find/have a valuable Secret to Success.
