68. The journey of completing uncomfortable tasks

Having forced myself to work on a lot of uncomfortable tasks (producing this post for example), I noticed a pattern on the zigzag journey I go through to complete them.

I will start the task by dreading to start it. Few moments of procrastination later I will feel bad and get started. And I’d start getting pretty excited. I’d realize that it is actually not that bad. All the hurdles are way exaggerated in my head. Knowing I don’t have to be perfect helps. In the drafting stage, I am allowed to make mistakes. So I explore creatively and get lost in imaginations.

And then I’ll hit a plateau. I face challenges, start running out of ideas, get bored or things get tough. This is the stage where I have to clean up the messy pieces I’ve produced and work on perfecting the tasks from start to finish. It’s stressful. That’s why I will dread continuing. Finding tons of other excuses to escape from the discomfort.

I learned overtime however, that this most frustrating stage is also the most crucial stage in the process. It’s like there’s this resistance that’s been holding you back, you keep trying to break it, and when suddenly you do, you just break-free and catapult in the speed of light. That’s why happens to my energy, focus and drive. They just skyrocketed. I became so absorbed in the moment. Suddenly I have zero room for distraction and I all I can think of is finishing that god damn task. I’ve reached the sate of of flow.

So persist. It will always get very uncomfortable in the middle but it’s a necessary part we need to go through to hit the flow state. Remove distractions, take the bulls by the horns and just force ourselves to get through the discomfort. Suppress that temporary pain, and in no time, we will reap the gain.