Discomfort, Self-Awareness, and Ice Baths.

Silent Reading Time: 1 mins 24 secs

MORNING! Whether you have eye crust in your eyes or fully awake — let’s dig in.

Have you ever heard the phrase,

"On the other side of discomfort is your goal"?

Sounds motivational but let's be real, it's not that simple and discomfort sucks. We often avoid discomfort like the plague and use excuses to explain it away with 'logic', AKA bullshit.

So we’re here to answer one question:

Where does your mind go when you face discomfort?

If you're like, "I have no idea," then let's dive into some self-awareness.

We're not going to go full-on Win Hof with an ice bath, but we are going to experiment with discomfort by immersing our hands in an ice bath.

Yes, you read that right.

This experiment is designed to trigger your fight or flight (or freeze) response in a controlled stressor. The type of discomfort you’ll feel will mimic the type of thoughts you have and how your body copes with discomfort in business.

So, here's how it works:

1. Fill a bowl with ice water and add enough ice cubes to make it cold (add salt to make it colder if you're feeling bold).

2. Submerge your hands in the ice bath for 1 minute.

3. Observe your thoughts, physical responses, and feelings. Just be present and acknowledge them.

Did you make it the whole minute? If you didn’t that’s fine. You can try again another time. But if you made it, did you negotiate with yourself to keep going?

So, stick your toes in the self-awareness kiddy pool and give this experiment a try. Your fingers won't fall off, I promise.

P.S. This newsletter was inspired by watching the show: The Selection on Hulu. The link sends you to Hulu if you were interested in watching, which I 10/10 recommend.

By the way, do you like the short newsletter? Or do you want more of the science or story behind the inspiration? Let me know how I can make this a better read for you.