Why Personal Growth Hurts

Embracing the Discomfort of Transformation

6/14/2024

Personal growth is fucking hard—like REALLY hard. You’ve probably heard the saying: if you drop a frog into boiling water, it’ll jump out immediately, but if you place it in room-temperature water and slowly heat it to a boil, it won’t notice the danger until it’s too late.

Well, personal growth is like stepping into a shower with perfectly tempered water. Then, without warning, the heat cranks up. When you reach for the door to escape, you find it’s jammed, leaving you stuck.

Okay, maybe the two aren’t alike, and this might be a TERRIBLE analogy, but the point is: personal growth is fucking hard. It hurts, and there’s no way around it. By the time you feel the hurt, you’ve already glimpsed what’s possible on the other side. You want what’s waiting there, and you know the only way to get it is to go through the change.

Making your way through the hurt will leave scars. Sometimes you’ll take the wrong path—it’ll suck—but you’ll keep going because the only alternative is to stop and return to your old self.

Here’s the thing about growth: you’re becoming someone you’ve never been before. Everything feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable. To move forward, your faith in where you’re going must outweigh the discomfort of getting there.