I know Life Hack articles are all the rage. I wish I could give you the Top 3 Tips to Make Your Life Amazing or the Top 5 Ways To Make You A Millionaire. But, after having fallen for the clickbait one too many times, we all know that those are bullshit.

So here is a life hack for you: Get used to feeling uncomfortable.

Now, I don’t mean learn to live out of a tent or cuss out the family member you don’t like. No one wants that level of uncomfortableness.

Rather, learn to live with the anxiety that comes along with starting something new or the fear that will always be there when you are pushing out of your comfort zone. Feel those feelings but do it anyway.

I just re-learned this lesson with the launch of my podcast. I wish I could say that I was really excited to launch it but the reality of it was that everything in my body was screaming on high alert. The thought of having people listen to me and, even worse, judge me was crippling.

The anxiety was real, my friends. Who the hell am I to put out a podcast?!? (don’t answer that; it’s rhetorical).

But I did it anyway. Again, I wish I could say that is because I’m so brave and I don’t care about what people think but that would be a lie. Honestly, the only reason I finally published it was because I had interviewed guests and they were waiting for their episode to go public.

Who knew accountability really worked?! (again, please don’t answer that).

But the interesting thing happened after I published. I was overwhelmed by the response I received. I honestly expected my close family and friends to listen and maybe send me a note. But I was inundated with messages through email, text, direct messages on every social media platform, etc. I received messages from people I don’t even know! HOW DID THEY FIND THE PODCAST ALREADY?! It was magic.

Within the first couple of days, I had over 500 downloads, which is likely not a lot compared to other podcasts but blew my expectations out of the water.

I was on cloud 9!! And a big part of it was a sense of relief because it made it ok for me to pursue this passion project that I really wanted to do.

And it got me thinking.

What if I never published it? What if I let that dreaded feeling of anxiety convince me to scrap the project? That is not a far-fetched scenario. I’ve let that anxiety stop me from doing a lot of things in my life.

How different would my life look if I had been ok with feeling uncomfortable in the short-term in order to try things I was interested in?! Ugh. This thought will haunt me.

I was recently listening to a podcast with Brooke Castillo and she summed it up best:

“Discomfort is the currency of your dreams”

YES!!!!!

This so wonderfully captures the most important lesson we can ever learn.

Get used to feeling uncomfortable.

When have you ever accomplished anything without some discomfort? Without some struggle?!

All those people doing incredible things that you want to do, all those companies making a killing, all of those started with people who were filled with doubt and fear. No one wakes up knowing what they want to do and exactly how to do it.

The anxiety will be there. Trying something new is scary. It is out of our comfort zone. We don’t know what we’re doing. It blows up your sense of normalcy.

And, guess what? It is the ONLY way to get what you want.

If you’re waiting for a fool-proof and fail-proof plan to show up for you to start that new business or get that career you want, you’ll wait forever. And when you’re too old to do it, you’ll be filled with regret.

So if you want to create that life you want, get used to that feeling.

Feel uncomfortable but do it anyway.