It’s something the modern world, especially here in the west, affords you.

The comfort of a hot meal, a warm bed, books to read, a TV to watch and so much more.

These things are so common you don’t even think about them day to day.

You are fortunate.

Sadly, however, comfort lulls you to sleep.

It takes your eyes off important things and limits your view.

Comfort so often constructs the prison in which you gladly reside. See Huxley.

If only you could grasp this one simple truth: comfort is not always your friend.

He may seem polite and an easy companion, but that’s only while he fastens the noose around your neck.

Discomfort on the on hand remains a faithful friend.

He pushes you to think, to challenge, to grow.

You don’t need to be protected from discomfort. You need to seek it out.

Seek out people, situations, conversations, and experiences that make you uncomfortable.

All the growth and change you seek is on the other side of those uncomfortable things.

You’re inconsistent.

You think and act in ways that fail to mesh with your values in principles.

Not just you, but all of us are walking and talking hypocrites.

But that’s not the whole story.

The rest of the story is that each time you catch yourself living inconsistently with your values is an opportunity.

An opportunity to:

• change,
• correct course,
• confess,
• ask forgiveness, and
• begin again.

Of course, it’s also an opportunity to:

• bow up,
• double down,
• give up,
• quit, and
• blame.

Hypocrisy isn’t the end of your story. It’s an intimate and defining part of it.

How you respond to your inconsistencies will go a long long way towards determining what happens in your life.

Choose the first set of responses rather than the second.

They are hard and uncomfortable steps to take but lead to healing, hope, and happiness in the end.

Most of all, they lead to growth and your best self.