Why Your Best Career Moves Happen In The Discomfort Zone

Forbes

25-06-2025

Kirsten Ludwig, Brand Builder, Advisor + Thought Leader | Founder at IN GOOD CO | Podcast Host GOOD THINKING + Lit From Within. getty
I got fired, went through a divorce and lived through a global pandemic that turned everyone's world upside down. If you'd told me 10 years ago that these would become some of the most important experiences of my career, I would have thought you were joking.
But here's what I've learned: We've been sold a lie that success means eliminating discomfort from our lives. Every productivity hack, every life optimization strategy and every piece of career advice seems designed to help us avoid the hard stuff, the uncertain stuff and the things that make our stomachs flip.
When I look back on everything I'm actually proud of—starting my own company, the brand campaigns that moved the needle and the personal growth that made me who I am—it all happened in the spaces that scared me most.
The day I got fired started like any other. Then I had a routine meeting that slowly revealed itself as anything but. During the walk to my car afterward, I tried to process what had just happened to my carefully constructed career plan.
The initial response was predictable: panic, shame and the voice insisting this meant I wasn't good enough. But after the shock wore off, something interesting happened: The discomfort of not knowing what came next forced me to confront what I actually wanted, not just what felt safe.
The following months of uncertainty—pitching clients from my kitchen table and learning to trust my own judgment without a corporate safety net—revealed capabilities I didn't know I had. The discomfort of starting over became the foundation of everything that mattered afterward.
The same pattern shows up in corporate environments: The brand strategies that move the needle aren't the ones that feel comfortable in the boardroom. They're the ones that make executives ask, "Are we sure about this?"
I remember one campaign with two options: the safe choice that tested well, or the bold choice that made everyone nervous but felt true to what the brand could become. The safe choice would have been forgotten within a quarter. The bold choice changed how people thought about the entire category.
This is the paradox of brand building: The moves that feel risky are often the only ones that create genuine differentiation. Safe brands don't get talked about. They don't move market share in meaningful ways. The brands we remember are built by people willing to be uncomfortable in service of something bigger than quarterly metrics. A Personal Reconstruction Project
When the pandemic began in 2020, personal discomfort became unavoidable for most of us. For me, it was compounded by a divorce. Everything I thought was solid suddenly became uncertain.
I was tempted to rush back to comfort, to re-create what was familiar. But something about the scale of the disruption made that impossible. There was no going back; I could only go through.
So I made a different choice: to sit in the uncertainty longer than felt comfortable. To rebuild intentionally instead of reactively. The result wasn't just recovery—it was discovery. The discomfort of not knowing who I was becoming led to becoming someone I actually liked. The Pattern Behind Everything That Matters
Once you start looking, you see it everywhere: All meaningful change requires a period of not knowing. The space between who you were and who you're becoming is inherently uncomfortable.
But we've become so comfort-obsessed that we've lost our tolerance for the normal discomfort that comes with anything worthwhile. We interpret chest tightness and the urge to procrastinate as warning signs instead of growth signals.
The most successful people haven't eliminated discomfort—they've learned to distinguish between productive discomfort and destructive discomfort. They lean into the uncertainty that comes with meaningful challenges while avoiding genuinely harmful stress. Why Comfort Is Actually The Riskier Choice
Your comfort zone isn't protecting you from failure—it's protecting you from the person you could become. While you're avoiding discomfort, the world changes around you. Markets shift, technologies evolve and yesterday's valuable skills become today's table stakes.
The real risk isn't taking chances—it's becoming irrelevant while waiting for certainty that never comes. Every day you choose comfort over growth is a day your competitors are choosing differently. The Practical Framework
This isn't about chaos seeking. It's about developing intentional discomfort tolerance:
• Notice your avoidance patterns. What conversations are you postponing? What projects feel too risky? Your avoidance often points toward your next growth opportunity.
• Start small but consistently. Choose one uncomfortable thing per week—the email you're avoiding, the conversation that needs to happen or the creative risk you keep talking yourself out of.
• Reframe the sensation. When you feel chest tightness or the urge to procrastinate, recognize it as your growth edge, not a warning sign. Your body is alerting you to significance, not danger. Your Move
Look at your calendar this week. Look at your to-do list. How much of your professional life is designed to keep you comfortable? The career moves you'll be proudest of five years from now are probably the ones that feel slightly terrifying today.
Your best work, your biggest impact and your most meaningful connections are all waiting for you on the other side of the thing that scares you most.
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