Parents are comfortable being uncomfortable!

When I was in the military, I was often physically uncomfortable from the heavy helmet on my head to the rumbling in my stomach and the blisters on my feet. I didn’t know it at the time, but feeling uncomfortable was a lifelong lesson in how to improve yourself in the process. The Army even had a saying that went like this: “If you feel comfortable, then you are wrong!”

Although my lessons started in the physical realm of feeling uncomfortable, most of the lessons I learned in the Army that I would use in my future did not stay in the physical realm with just being cold, tired, and hungry. After my days of service, the future lessons of this small army saying you are wrong if you are comfortable came mainly from being mentally, psychologically, intellectually or even socially uncomfortable in the civilian world where no one was shooting at me anymore.

Athletes know that growth occurs when you push beyond your comfort zones. This growth phenomenon also affects parents. Parenting is a learning experience that requires massive growth and therefore forces us into massive growth. It just makes sense that if something forces us to grow as a person, then it won’t always be comfortable. In fact, many times it will be uncomfortable or even painful, as is the case with forced reps in the gym when you are really pushing your limits. Parenting forces us to push our limits and grow a lot too. So parenthood is going to make us very uncomfortable.

Hey, if parenting doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable occasionally, then we really aren’t doing all that we can do to become the higher quality people and higher quality parents that our children really deserve! Trust me. It’s something good.

Now, as my grandfather always said: “Go learn, lead and open the way to a better world for all of us.” It’s okay to be a little uncomfortable, as well as a little scared. It is a sign of growth. And once again parents, thank you in advance for all that you do and all that you will do …