March 28, 2025 • 16 mins
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable has become something of a personal development mantra, but what happens when we apply this principle to our communities?
Many of us believe our communities are "so close" to breakthrough – but can this perspective be keeping us in comfortable patterns that limit real progress. The truth? We might not be as close as we think, and the path forward may require more significant disruption than we're currently willing to embrace.
What might collective discomfort look like? What does it mean to risk it all for progress? The goal isn't just personal advancement but creating a future where the next generation starts with "billion-dollar problems" instead of struggling with the same challenges we face today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've lived long enough, you've heard of the
phrase that you need to getcomfortable being uncomfortable.
You need to get comfortablebeing uncomfortable and that
usually has an association withgrowth, transformation, some
type of progress that might comewith some level of discomfort.
(00:22):
This ability to be comfortableconstantly being uncomfortable
is somewhat of a way to move tothe next level and that somehow
staying in your comfort zoneoften means you are staying
stagnant in life.
But what comfort are we as acommunity holding on to?
(00:43):
That might actually be keepingus from the collective future
that we say we want?
What comfort are we holding onto as communities that is
keeping us from the future?
Are we as communities beingcomfortable with being
(01:04):
uncomfortable?
I like to be educated but I'mso frustrated.
(01:25):
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess that endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noonRewind.
Take it out of cue.
So when it comes to personalgrowth, a lot of times we are
thinking about moving to thenext station, I guess you can
(01:46):
say in life.
That can be in our careers,that can be in terms of wealth,
that can be relationships.
We are thinking about moving upto another level and sometimes
that can be done with just bruteforce.
Sometimes that can be done,with us maybe having some type
(02:07):
of routine and we feel like ifwe do it constantly, whatever we
desire is going to come our way.
I don't know.
That might look like workinghard at the job right, or saving
enough money, or constantlyworking out, or constantly
working out, you know, any typeof thing that we think that we
can do on a regular basis thatmight get us to the next level
(02:28):
can sometimes be deemed as usstill staying in our comfort
zone.
Maybe that looks like you onthe job.
You've always worked hard,you've been there 10 years,
you're trying to move up thecorporate ladder but ultimately
it's just not happening.
But you truly, truly desire it,and so this phrase of being
(02:52):
comfortable, being uncomfortable, might look like going to a new
company, branching off on yourown, doing something that you
normally wouldn't do.
That might be a little scary,might be a little intimidating,
but ultimately it might be thepath to which you can get all
(03:12):
the things that you desired forthat particular career or
whatever it might be in ourlives.
And we do this as people, andwe do this in our personal lives
, really to to make the nextmove for us individually, and
that's perfectly OK, weabsolutely should.
(03:33):
But when we think aboutcollectively, are we
collectively being uncomfortableenough so that we can
collectively move to the nextstation together?
I mean, as a human, sometimes itis absolutely intimidating to
disrupt things that are going onin our lives already.
(03:55):
I mean, when you want to get tothe next level at that job, in
a lot of ways it feels like it'sso close, right.
I mean you leaving to go toanother company or you leaving
to start your own business is ascary, scary option because in
your mind the only thing youneed to change maybe for you to
(04:15):
get to this next level is forthat one supervisor to take a
chance on you, or that onetimesheet approver to give you a
helping hand, or you just needfor this other department to
accept your promotion, right.
So you feel like it's so closeand if you can just get past
that one little hump, that oneperson's approval, then maybe
(04:41):
you don't have to disrupt yourroutine every single day, you
don't have to disrupt all thethings that you've gotten to be
comfortable in your life.
Right, you are just that closeto having, you know essentially
having it all, to having it allright.
As communities, we feel theexact same way.
(05:02):
We know for a fact that thereare things that need to be
better, things that need to beimproved in our community and in
some ways we too feel like weare so close, so close, and our
way of expressing that might bethe typical things that we do as
(05:24):
a community together ismarching.
It could look like going to thevoting booth, it could look
like a lot of things that wefeel like you know what?
We're so close.
If we can just get 10,000 morepeople at the voting booth, man,
we can have that communitypromotion.
Man, if we can just march andget that judge or that city
(05:45):
official to make a change, wecan have everything that we
needed to make a change.
We can have everything that weneeded.
We're just that close.
We don't want to get too, toouncomfortable.
But can I offer maybe two pointsof consideration?
I think one is we're not asclose as we probably think we
are individually or collectivelyright, close as we probably
(06:08):
think we are individually orcollectively right.
That promotion in our mind, man, we are so, so close, man.
We're so close, maybe togetting that home that we wanted
that ideal life that we werelooking for and collectively, as
a community, we're so, so close.
If we can just get that oneperson elected, if we can just
(06:28):
get right there, we're not asclose as we actually think we
are.
A lot of things can happen,even after you get that
promotion that might be out ofyour control.
A lot of things can happen ornot happen, for that matter If
we get that person elected, wemight not be as close as we
think.
We are Number one and number twowhen it comes to our collective
(06:50):
dreams.
We have to respect andunderstand that, in order for us
to collectively get to where weare right now, we had a whole
lot of collective people beingvery, very uncomfortable so that
we can move this ball forward.
And what do I mean by that?
That house or theseneighborhoods that we live in
now, these jobs that we have now, these opportunities that all
(07:14):
of us in our community have now,are of a direct result of
people collectively being very,very uncomfortable, getting very
, very uncomfortable in theircommunities, in their
neighborhoods, so that we couldcollectively, collectively, get
to this position that we are inright now.
(07:34):
How many of those that camebefore you on a community level
literally risked it all for youto be this close, for you to be
this close to whatever it isthat you are trying to do, I
mean sacrificed everything theyhad for that man or woman next
(07:55):
to them that they might not haveeven known at the time.
I mean, when I think aboutUnderground Railroads or I think
about any of the movements ofour past, there was a lot of
sacrifice being madecollectively, a lot of
uncomfortable spaces that peoplewere in collectively to make
(08:16):
sure that everybody can get tothe next level.
I mean, that's how we got hereright now, and so if you still
are managing to be somewhat, Iguess, selfish with our intent,
let's just make it even a littlebit more personal, right, if we
want to go from where we areright now I don't know, maybe
(08:37):
we're $100,000 folks and we'retrying to become millionaires,
millionaires trying to becomebillionaires, whatever it is
right.
Maybe we're trying to go fromone property that we own to
multiple properties.
Maybe we're trying to retire at50, retire at 40, whatever it
is that we are individuallytrying to work on.
(08:58):
Those are big jumps andabsolutely can be done.
They can be done right If weare willing to be comfortable
being uncomfortable, and theycan be done individually be
comfortable being uncomfortableand they can be done
individually.
But think about how ourcommunity has made those jumps,
literally some of thesefinancial jumps together
(09:19):
collectively being uncomfortableto go from one station to the
next.
It might have been collectivelybeing uncomfortable to go from
slavery to freedom right, that'sa big jump.
Or collectively being able togo from only renting to owning.
Or collectively being able togo from just workers to owners.
(09:43):
Collectively, we got thesemillion dollar dreams that we
have because collectively wewere willing to be uncomfortable
for that thousand dollar dreamthat some of our ancestors had.
Right, your billion dollaraspirations are probably much
closer than you think once we'reready to be uncomfortable
(10:05):
together.
And when we say uncomfortablecollectively, we know what that
kind of seems and feels like asan individual.
Right, oh my God, that's megoing to a new job or leaving
this current situation that I amin and pursuing something brand
new.
Individually, we know what thatis that feels uncomfortable.
(10:26):
But what does it feel like for acommunity to be uncomfortable?
You know, one of the thingsthat I hear and we hear all the
time these kids, yes, they canhave their dreadlocks now, but
at some point they're going tohave to cut those dreads off
before they go into an interview.
Or, yes, you have some fundsright now, but at some point, if
(10:48):
you're trying to do this majorproject of yours, you're going
to have to go in front of somefolks that don't look like you
to raise money right At somepoint.
At some point we're going tohave to go into the voting booth
and do this and do that.
There seems to be these limitsas a community that we
constantly come up to becausethat's the comfortable route to
go.
But I would offer that beinguncomfortable as a community
(11:15):
does look like going around thesystem.
It does look like doing thingscompletely different.
Being uncomfortable as acommunity might look like
letting young people, lettingthese teenagers and these 20
year olds lead and represent usas a community.
Maybe that's uncomfortable forus, right?
Maybe uncomfortable for us isyou with your suit and tie on
(11:41):
going to that five-starrestaurant and yeah, there might
be a couple black couple on theother side of that restaurant
with dreads and pants hangingoff his behind and you not
feeling embarrassed.
That might be uncomfortable asa community, right?
Uncomfortable might be runninga program with just your money
(12:02):
and not asking anybody else foranything.
That might be uncomfortable,that might be the uncomfortable
way of doing things as acommunity.
As a community, we canabsolutely do that.
Again, when I think about theUnderground Railroad, everybody
didn't even need to know everypiece of that puzzle, but you
(12:25):
might have been working at aparticular location and the only
thing you know is that if ablack person came up there and
they said these words to you,you don't ask questions, you
don't ask them where they'refrom, where they're going.
None of that, none of that.
You know what to do.
You take them, you put them inthe back of that buggy and you
(12:46):
take them to where you'resupposed to take them to and you
drop them off and you come backand that's it.
And you're risking a whole lotto do that.
You don't even know thesepeople, you don't even know them
right, but you are risking.
You are going to beuncomfortable in that space
because, collectively, that'show we collectively get to the
point where we have thesethousand dollar, million dollar,
(13:07):
billion dollar problems.
That's how we collectively getto the point where you can try
to individually retire at 50,retire at 40, buy multiple
properties, do whatever you'retrying to do, and so, as we
think about us beinguncomfortable individually so
that we can get to the nextstation in life.
We have to collectively get toa point where we can be
(13:30):
comfortable being uncomfortableas a community so that as a
community, we can push this ballforward.
Our dream should be that thisnext generation of our community
they have billion dollarproblems, right, they have
billion dollar dreams they aretrying to figure out how to get
(13:53):
their tens of millions and getto the billion dollar station.
That's what they're focused on.
They already have a bunch ofproperties.
They already have a bunch ofplaces.
Maybe their problem is tryingto figure out how to just get
the hotel built on theirproperty.
That's their major problem.
That's the next level they'retrying to get at.
They already aren't working.
They're not trying to figureout how to retire.
(14:15):
They're not working to helpother people in their community.
That's their problem.
And if that's going to be theirproblem, then there has to be
some uncomfortable collectiveaction that we need to take.
Today as a community, we shouldabsolutely be getting much more
(14:37):
comfortable, being uncomfortableand not afraid to be in a space
where it's unfamiliar, to be ina position where we don't know
what's next, to be in a positionwhere we aren't sure exactly
what this is supposed to looklike because we haven't done it
before as a community.
(14:58):
That's what that means as anindividual level.
You've never not worked forsomebody else.
Maybe Maybe this has alwaysbeen the job or the career that
you've been in.
So you have to go do somethingelse that you've never done
before so that you can get thenext leg up as communities.
What makes us think that wedon't have to do the exact same
(15:19):
thing?
No, we are going to have to dosome things that we've never
done before collectively.
We're going to have to do thosethings that we've never done
before collectively.
We're going to have to do thosethings that we've never
imagined or we can't, even rightnow, figure out how it's going
to work.
But that is, in a lot of ways,the whole essence of faith.
That is what that's about.
That is actually taking thesteps and saying you know, as a
(15:42):
community we don't know how thisis going to work, but we're
going to try it anyway.
We're going to try it anyway,and so I would encourage all of
us, collectively again, to getmuch more comfortable being
(16:05):
uncomfortable together.
This is the Scratch WorkPodcast, where we don't fear the
future.
We create it.
One idea, one thought, onedream at a time.
(16:37):
Thank you,
If you've lived long enough, you've heard of the
phrase that you need to getcomfortable being uncomfortable.
You need to get comfortablebeing uncomfortable and that
usually has an association withgrowth, transformation, some
type of progress that might comewith some level of discomfort.
(00:22):
This ability to be comfortableconstantly being uncomfortable
is somewhat of a way to move tothe next level and that somehow
staying in your comfort zoneoften means you are staying
stagnant in life.
But what comfort are we as acommunity holding on to?
(00:43):
That might actually be keepingus from the collective future
that we say we want?
What comfort are we holding onto as communities that is
keeping us from the future?
Are we as communities beingcomfortable with being
(01:04):
uncomfortable?
I like to be educated but I'mso frustrated.
(01:25):
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess that endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noonRewind.
Take it out of cue.
So when it comes to personalgrowth, a lot of times we are
thinking about moving to thenext station, I guess you can
(01:46):
say in life.
That can be in our careers,that can be in terms of wealth,
that can be relationships.
We are thinking about moving upto another level and sometimes
that can be done with just bruteforce.
Sometimes that can be done,with us maybe having some type
(02:07):
of routine and we feel like ifwe do it constantly, whatever we
desire is going to come our way.
I don't know.
That might look like workinghard at the job right, or saving
enough money, or constantlyworking out, or constantly
working out, you know, any typeof thing that we think that we
can do on a regular basis thatmight get us to the next level
(02:28):
can sometimes be deemed as usstill staying in our comfort
zone.
Maybe that looks like you onthe job.
You've always worked hard,you've been there 10 years,
you're trying to move up thecorporate ladder but ultimately
it's just not happening.
But you truly, truly desire it,and so this phrase of being
(02:52):
comfortable, being uncomfortable, might look like going to a new
company, branching off on yourown, doing something that you
normally wouldn't do.
That might be a little scary,might be a little intimidating,
but ultimately it might be thepath to which you can get all
(03:12):
the things that you desired forthat particular career or
whatever it might be in ourlives.
And we do this as people, andwe do this in our personal lives
, really to to make the nextmove for us individually, and
that's perfectly OK, weabsolutely should.
(03:33):
But when we think aboutcollectively, are we
collectively being uncomfortableenough so that we can
collectively move to the nextstation together?
I mean, as a human, sometimes itis absolutely intimidating to
disrupt things that are going onin our lives already.
(03:55):
I mean, when you want to get tothe next level at that job, in
a lot of ways it feels like it'sso close, right.
I mean you leaving to go toanother company or you leaving
to start your own business is ascary, scary option because in
your mind the only thing youneed to change maybe for you to
(04:15):
get to this next level is forthat one supervisor to take a
chance on you, or that onetimesheet approver to give you a
helping hand, or you just needfor this other department to
accept your promotion, right.
So you feel like it's so closeand if you can just get past
that one little hump, that oneperson's approval, then maybe
(04:41):
you don't have to disrupt yourroutine every single day, you
don't have to disrupt all thethings that you've gotten to be
comfortable in your life.
Right, you are just that closeto having, you know essentially
having it all, to having it allright.
As communities, we feel theexact same way.
(05:02):
We know for a fact that thereare things that need to be
better, things that need to beimproved in our community and in
some ways we too feel like weare so close, so close, and our
way of expressing that might bethe typical things that we do as
(05:24):
a community together ismarching.
It could look like going to thevoting booth, it could look
like a lot of things that wefeel like you know what?
We're so close.
If we can just get 10,000 morepeople at the voting booth, man,
we can have that communitypromotion.
Man, if we can just march andget that judge or that city
(05:45):
official to make a change, wecan have everything that we
needed to make a change.
We can have everything that weneeded.
We're just that close.
We don't want to get too, toouncomfortable.
But can I offer maybe two pointsof consideration?
I think one is we're not asclose as we probably think we
are individually or collectivelyright, close as we probably
(06:08):
think we are individually orcollectively right.
That promotion in our mind, man, we are so, so close, man.
We're so close, maybe togetting that home that we wanted
that ideal life that we werelooking for and collectively, as
a community, we're so, so close.
If we can just get that oneperson elected, if we can just
(06:28):
get right there, we're not asclose as we actually think we
are.
A lot of things can happen,even after you get that
promotion that might be out ofyour control.
A lot of things can happen ornot happen, for that matter If
we get that person elected, wemight not be as close as we
think.
We are Number one and number twowhen it comes to our collective
(06:50):
dreams.
We have to respect andunderstand that, in order for us
to collectively get to where weare right now, we had a whole
lot of collective people beingvery, very uncomfortable so that
we can move this ball forward.
And what do I mean by that?
That house or theseneighborhoods that we live in
now, these jobs that we have now, these opportunities that all
(07:14):
of us in our community have now,are of a direct result of
people collectively being very,very uncomfortable, getting very
, very uncomfortable in theircommunities, in their
neighborhoods, so that we couldcollectively, collectively, get
to this position that we are inright now.
(07:34):
How many of those that camebefore you on a community level
literally risked it all for youto be this close, for you to be
this close to whatever it isthat you are trying to do, I
mean sacrificed everything theyhad for that man or woman next
(07:55):
to them that they might not haveeven known at the time.
I mean, when I think aboutUnderground Railroads or I think
about any of the movements ofour past, there was a lot of
sacrifice being madecollectively, a lot of
uncomfortable spaces that peoplewere in collectively to make
(08:16):
sure that everybody can get tothe next level.
I mean, that's how we got hereright now, and so if you still
are managing to be somewhat, Iguess, selfish with our intent,
let's just make it even a littlebit more personal, right, if we
want to go from where we areright now I don't know, maybe
(08:37):
we're $100,000 folks and we'retrying to become millionaires,
millionaires trying to becomebillionaires, whatever it is
right.
Maybe we're trying to go fromone property that we own to
multiple properties.
Maybe we're trying to retire at50, retire at 40, whatever it
is that we are individuallytrying to work on.
(08:58):
Those are big jumps andabsolutely can be done.
They can be done right If weare willing to be comfortable
being uncomfortable, and theycan be done individually be
comfortable being uncomfortableand they can be done
individually.
But think about how ourcommunity has made those jumps,
literally some of thesefinancial jumps together
(09:19):
collectively being uncomfortableto go from one station to the
next.
It might have been collectivelybeing uncomfortable to go from
slavery to freedom right, that'sa big jump.
Or collectively being able togo from only renting to owning.
Or collectively being able togo from just workers to owners.
(09:43):
Collectively, we got thesemillion dollar dreams that we
have because collectively wewere willing to be uncomfortable
for that thousand dollar dreamthat some of our ancestors had.
Right, your billion dollaraspirations are probably much
closer than you think once we'reready to be uncomfortable
(10:05):
together.
And when we say uncomfortablecollectively, we know what that
kind of seems and feels like asan individual.
Right, oh my God, that's megoing to a new job or leaving
this current situation that I amin and pursuing something brand
new.
Individually, we know what thatis that feels uncomfortable.
(10:26):
But what does it feel like for acommunity to be uncomfortable?
You know, one of the thingsthat I hear and we hear all the
time these kids, yes, they canhave their dreadlocks now, but
at some point they're going tohave to cut those dreads off
before they go into an interview.
Or, yes, you have some fundsright now, but at some point, if
(10:48):
you're trying to do this majorproject of yours, you're going
to have to go in front of somefolks that don't look like you
to raise money right At somepoint.
At some point we're going tohave to go into the voting booth
and do this and do that.
There seems to be these limitsas a community that we
constantly come up to becausethat's the comfortable route to
go.
But I would offer that beinguncomfortable as a community
(11:15):
does look like going around thesystem.
It does look like doing thingscompletely different.
Being uncomfortable as acommunity might look like
letting young people, lettingthese teenagers and these 20
year olds lead and represent usas a community.
Maybe that's uncomfortable forus, right?
Maybe uncomfortable for us isyou with your suit and tie on
(11:41):
going to that five-starrestaurant and yeah, there might
be a couple black couple on theother side of that restaurant
with dreads and pants hangingoff his behind and you not
feeling embarrassed.
That might be uncomfortable asa community, right?
Uncomfortable might be runninga program with just your money
(12:02):
and not asking anybody else foranything.
That might be uncomfortable,that might be the uncomfortable
way of doing things as acommunity.
As a community, we canabsolutely do that.
Again, when I think about theUnderground Railroad, everybody
didn't even need to know everypiece of that puzzle, but you
(12:25):
might have been working at aparticular location and the only
thing you know is that if ablack person came up there and
they said these words to you,you don't ask questions, you
don't ask them where they'refrom, where they're going.
None of that, none of that.
You know what to do.
You take them, you put them inthe back of that buggy and you
(12:46):
take them to where you'resupposed to take them to and you
drop them off and you come backand that's it.
And you're risking a whole lotto do that.
You don't even know thesepeople, you don't even know them
right, but you are risking.
You are going to beuncomfortable in that space
because, collectively, that'show we collectively get to the
point where we have thesethousand dollar, million dollar,
(13:07):
billion dollar problems.
That's how we collectively getto the point where you can try
to individually retire at 50,retire at 40, buy multiple
properties, do whatever you'retrying to do, and so, as we
think about us beinguncomfortable individually so
that we can get to the nextstation in life.
We have to collectively get toa point where we can be
(13:30):
comfortable being uncomfortableas a community so that as a
community, we can push this ballforward.
Our dream should be that thisnext generation of our community
they have billion dollarproblems, right, they have
billion dollar dreams they aretrying to figure out how to get
(13:53):
their tens of millions and getto the billion dollar station.
That's what they're focused on.
They already have a bunch ofproperties.
They already have a bunch ofplaces.
Maybe their problem is tryingto figure out how to just get
the hotel built on theirproperty.
That's their major problem.
That's the next level they'retrying to get at.
They already aren't working.
They're not trying to figureout how to retire.
(14:15):
They're not working to helpother people in their community.
That's their problem.
And if that's going to be theirproblem, then there has to be
some uncomfortable collectiveaction that we need to take.
Today as a community, we shouldabsolutely be getting much more
(14:37):
comfortable, being uncomfortableand not afraid to be in a space
where it's unfamiliar, to be ina position where we don't know
what's next, to be in a positionwhere we aren't sure exactly
what this is supposed to looklike because we haven't done it
before as a community.
(14:58):
That's what that means as anindividual level.
You've never not worked forsomebody else.
Maybe Maybe this has alwaysbeen the job or the career that
you've been in.
So you have to go do somethingelse that you've never done
before so that you can get thenext leg up as communities.
What makes us think that wedon't have to do the exact same
(15:19):
thing?
No, we are going to have to dosome things that we've never
done before collectively.
We're going to have to do thosethings that we've never done
before collectively.
We're going to have to do thosethings that we've never
imagined or we can't, even rightnow, figure out how it's going
to work.
But that is, in a lot of ways,the whole essence of faith.
That is what that's about.
That is actually taking thesteps and saying you know, as a
(15:42):
community we don't know how thisis going to work, but we're
going to try it anyway.
We're going to try it anyway,and so I would encourage all of
us, collectively again, to getmuch more comfortable being
(16:05):
uncomfortable together.
This is the Scratch WorkPodcast, where we don't fear the
future.
We create it.
One idea, one thought, onedream at a time.
(16:37):
Thank you,
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